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To ensure your business’s success, you have to choose a management style that fits your personality and vision. Here’s how.

Maximizing efficiency within your crew is crucial as a supervisor. Utilizing different management styles – including authoritative, persuasive, and transformational management – can help. Each approach has its strengths, so choosing the right one can foster a productive work environment that fits your style and vision.

Authoritative management sets clear expectations for employees and is ideal for quick decision-making. Persuasive management encourages collaboration and teamwork among employees. Transformational management inspires crew members to achieve their best work by setting objectives, establishing relationships, and recognizing accomplishments.

In this article, we'll explore each management style in detail and provide practical tips for their effective implementation.

1. Authoritative management

As a supervisor, one of your main aims is to maximize efficiency within the group. Utilizing an authoritative management style can help you achieve this by providing clear expectations and holding employees accountable for their performance. This approach enables you to maintain control over your crew while ensuring they meet their goals.

Achieving success through clear expectations

To implement authoritative management effectively, it’s essential to establish well-defined objectives for each employee. These should be aligned with the company’s overall mission and values, such as delivering top-notch service or maintaining a strong focus on customer satisfaction. By setting specific targets that are both challenging and achievable, you’ll empower your crew members to work toward them diligently. Some tips:

• Create SMART goals: Make sure each goal is Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound.

• Maintain open communication: Regularly discuss progress with individual employees during one-on-one meetings or group check-ins.

• Incorporate OKRs: Use Objectives and Key Results (OKRs) in conjunction with daily tasks to keep everyone focused on achieving desired outcomes.

Holding employees accountable for performance

An integral aspect of authoritative management involves monitoring employee performance closely so that any issues can be addressed promptly. By keeping track of how well each person meets their set objectives – whether through weekly reports or monthly reviews – you’ll gain valuable insights into areas where improvement may be needed. To effectively hold employees accountable, you’ll need to: 

1. Offer constructive feedback: When discussing performance, provide specific examples of areas where the employee excelled and those that require improvement. Offer guidance on how they can make positive changes.
2. Recognize achievements: Celebrate individual and crew successes to boost morale and encourage continued high performance.
3. Maintain consistency: Ensure that all employees are held to the same standards, regardless of their role or seniority within the organization. This will help create a fair work environment where everyone feels valued and motivated to succeed.

Incorporating authoritative management into your leadership style allows you to maintain control over your crew while driving them toward success. By setting clear expectations, providing feedback, and holding employees accountable for their performance, you’ll foster a highly productive environment focused on delivering exceptional service to customers.

An authoritative style of leadership can help foster a productive atmosphere by ensuring that assignments are accomplished in an expeditious manner. But it’s only one way to achieve success.

2. Persuasive management

Encouraging collaboration among your crew members is crucial for a successful and thriving work environment. By adopting persuasive management techniques, you can create an atmosphere where everyone feels comfortable sharing ideas and working together to achieve success.

Create an environment for sharing ideas

To foster collaboration, it’s essential to establish a safe environment for idea sharing. Encourage open communication by setting up regular brainstorming sessions or implementing tools like Slack channels dedicated to new ideas. Ensure that employees feel heard and valued when they contribute their thoughts.

Use crew-building exercises

Crew-building activities are another excellent way to promote collaboration within your organization. They can help dissolve divisions between colleagues, enabling them to recognize each other’s talents and deficits while developing trust. Ideas for crew-building activities include:

• Idea-sharing workshops: Gather crew members together for structured brainstorming sessions focused on specific projects or challenges.

• Cross-functional teams: Assign employees from different departments or roles into temporary project groups, encouraging diverse perspectives and skillsets in problem-solving efforts.

• Social events: Organize casual gatherings outside of work hours (such as happy hours or game nights) so that employees can bond on a personal level without the pressure of deadlines looming over them.

Lead by example

As a manager, it’s essential to lead by example when promoting collaboration within your crew. Be open to feedback from employees and actively seek their input on important decisions. Show that you value their opinions and are willing to adjust your approach based on the collective wisdom of the group. Acknowledging and rewarding collaborative efforts is crucial for reinforcing this behavior among your crew members. 

Incorporating persuasive management techniques into your leadership style can significantly improve collaboration within your organization, ultimately leading to increased productivity and success in achieving goals together as a unified team. But there’s still one more way to motivate your crew by inspiring them with meaningful goals and rewarding their efforts.

3. Transformational management

As a leader, you can tap into your crew’s potential with transformational management. By establishing relationships, specifying objectives, and appreciating achievements, you can cultivate a beneficial work atmosphere that encourages progress and accomplishment.

Set goals

To effectively motivate your crew using transformational management techniques, it’s crucial to set clear objectives for each employee or department within the organization. Implementing tools like Crewhu, an employee recognition platform built for MSPs (managed service providers), can help streamline this process by allowing managers to easily track progress toward the following goals in real time.

• Daily Goals: Encourage employees to prioritize tasks by setting daily targets that align with overall company objectives.

• Weekly Goals: Monitor performance weekly to ensure that projects are progressing as planned and address any roadblocks immediately.
• Monthly Goals: Set monthly milestones that contribute towards quarterly OKRs so everyone stays focused on achieving long-term success.
• Quarterly OKRs: Create ambitious – yet achievable – quarterly OKRs that drive continuous improvement across all aspects of the business.

Foster relationships

In addition to goal-setting strategies, fostering strong relationships among crew members is essential for creating a supportive work environment where everyone feels motivated and engaged. Some ways you can build stronger connections within your crew include:

1. Holding individual confabs with each worker to evaluate advancement, address worries, and furnish tailored criticism.
2. Organizing crew-building activities that encourage collaboration and help employees get to know one another on a personal level.
3. Promoting open communication by creating an environment where everyone feels comfortable sharing ideas and providing constructive criticism without fear of retribution.

Recognize accomplishments and celebrate successes

Last but not least, recognizing your crew’s accomplishments is vital for maintaining high levels of motivation. By celebrating successes, both big and small, you can show your appreciation for the hard work they’ve put in while reinforcing the importance of achieving company goals. Some ways to recognize achievements include:

• Giving shout-outs during meetings or via internal communication channels like Slack or Microsoft Teams.

• Awarding bonuses or other incentives based on performance metrics such as customer satisfaction scores or sales targets achieved.

• Implementing employee recognition programs through platforms like Crewhu that allow managers to easily track success stories within their organization.

By embracing transformational management techniques focused on goal-setting, relationship-building, and recognition strategies, you’ll be well-equipped to motivate your crew toward continued growth and success.

Let Crewhu help

The achievement of any organization depends on sound direction. By understanding and utilizing different management styles, you can maximize productivity, foster collaboration, and motivate your crew. Authoritative management works well in situations where quick decisions need to be made, while persuasive management encourages teamwork and creativity and transformational management inspires employees to achieve their best work. By incorporating elements of these three styles into your leadership approach, you can create a positive company culture that promotes growth and innovation. 

Regardless of your management style, Crewhu can help streamline your employee recognition process, improving employee engagement and retention and helping create a culture of accountability and success. Book a demo today to learn more about how we can help take your crew to the next level.