6 Micro Habits of Highly Effective Managers

What makes managers highly effective?

Making too many sub-optimal decisions throughout the day or making a few decisions well?

Keeping busy by reactively solving problems or proactively turning opportunities into results?

Trying to take giant leaps and giving up when progress seems far fetched or setting an easy pace and continuing each day steadily?

Sticking to their outdated beliefs or showing curiosity to expand their knowledge?

The answers are obvious and yet most managers struggle to be effective. They try to adopt complicated frameworks and practices even before they have developed the right habits. But without the basics in place, all their effort goes to waste.

Peter Drucker says in The Effective Executive “Intelligence, imagination, and knowledge are essential resources, but only effectiveness converts them into results.”

For a manager, being effective is not optional, it’s a crucial part of their job. Without effectiveness:

1. More time is spent on inconsequential tasks and less on forward moving activities.
2. Effort spent never matches up to the results.
3. There’s no sense of control over time.
4. Priorities are either not set or not honored. 
5. Opportunities are missed and problems linger on. 

Effectiveness is nothing but a habit and much like other habits in life, it too can be learned. If you want to be an effective manager, master these 6 micro habits:

Don’t let fear win

What can cause managers to play safe—pass on great opportunities, refuse to take risks and do the work they’ve always done before?

Fear.

Fear of failure.

Fear of not meeting others expectations.

Fear of losing credibility.

Fear is often what makes even highly competent managers ineffective. Not being able to separate healthy emotions from unhelpful ones keeps them confined within their comfort zone. Comfort zone feels safe, but it also limits their growth. 

Highly effective managers don’t brim with confidence. They’re as fearful as others. However they don’t let fear get in the way of doing their job or fulfilling their responsibilities as a manager. They do this by:

1. Acknowledging fear as a part of being human.
2. Reframing it from doubting their skills to considering it as a sign that they’re doing worthwhile work. 
3. Using fear to re-evaluate their decision, question their choices and reconsider their assumptions.

Courage is feeling fear, not getting rid of fear, and taking action in the face of fear.
— Roy T. Bennett, The Light in the Heart

Stay away from naysayers 

What happens when managers are surrounded by people who constantly criticize, crush ideas, and object to new ways of doing things?

Their cynicism makes it hard to get anything done. 

Decisions take longer.

Discussions go on forever.

Status quo is preserved.

New ideas are rejected. 

Under their influence, managers also become critical and disapproving of others. Negativity can be contagious. Not being careful around such people can turn even a highly optimist person into a defeatist, motivator into a complainer and supporter into a cynic. 

Highly effective managers check the energy of the people around them—are they raising their concerns with the right intent or simply spreading their negativity?

Consciously staying away from cynics and naysayers or minimizing their impact helps them make better decisions. They are able to weigh in different options before making a choice. 

Colin Powell said in It Worked For Me “Naysayers are everywhere. They feel it’s the safest position to be in. It’s the easiest armor to wear . . . And they may be right in their negativity; reality may be on their side. But chances are very good that it’s not. You can only use their naysaying as one line in the spectrum of inputs to your decision. Listen to everyone you need to, and then go with your fearless instinct.”

Actively deal with cognitive biases 

How do managers behave when they don’t pay attention to their cognitive biases?

They assume they’re rational in their thinking and judging others without realizing how their mind is playing games and keeping them biased. 

Many cognitive biases like fundamental attribution error, confirmation bias, illusion of transparency, framing effect and all-or-nothing thinking lead to habitual errors in thinking which creates an inaccurate view of reality.

We all want explanations for why we behave as we do and for the ways the world around us functions. Even when our feeble explanations have little to do with reality. We’re storytelling creatures by nature, and we tell ourselves story after story until we come up with an explanation that we like and that sounds reasonable enough to believe. And when the story portrays us in a more glowing and positive light, so much the better
— Dan Ariely, The Honest Truth About Dishonesty

Managers falling for these biases follow unhealthy and toxic practices at work—they are quick to blame, point out character flaws in others, reject great ideas and treat employees unfairly. 

Highly effective managers are not free from biases. They deal with the same limitations of the mind as others. However, they’re also highly self-aware. They follow good practices and habits of the mind to ensure their biases do not get in the way of how they communicate, collaborate and work with others. For example:

1. Implement feedback loops to learn from mistakes.
2. Encourage contradicting viewpoints.
3. Lead with questions instead of answers. 
4. Apply Occam’s razor to choose simplicity over complexity, Hanlon’s razor to look beyond their personal narrative and imagine the situation from another person’s perspective, and other such useful mental models. 

Making these simple practices as part of their daily habits reduces the negative effects of the cognitive biases on their decisions and how they lead.

Lift others up

What prevents managers from utilizing their team’s talent, maximizing their potential and creating an environment that enables them to do some of their best work?

Their false sense of superiority and the need to always be above others. 

The desire to prove their brilliance shows up in the way they communicate, decide and act. Their brilliant mindset makes them hog the limelight for themselves instead of putting the spotlight on others. They trust no one with the decisions and try to make all decisions themselves. They diminish their team’s potential by confining them to boxes and defining strict boundaries on what’s within their reach and what’s definitely out of scope. 

Highly effective managers act as multipliers who enhance their team’s thinking and capability. They empower their people to unblock themselves, utilize each person’s unique intelligence and connect them with the right opportunities. 

Liz Wiseman explains this in Multipliers “Leaders rooted in the logic of multiplication believe: 1. Most people in organizations are underutilized. 2. All capability can be leveraged with the right kind of leadership. 3. Therefore, intelligence and capability can be multiplied without requiring a bigger investment.”

While diminishers stifle their teams and push them down, multipliers lift their people by giving them an opportunity to shine and succeed. 

Operate within circle of influence 

What makes some managers give up as soon as they encounter an obstacle or face a challenge?

Low agency. 

Low agency managers focus their efforts in their circle of concern. Spending their time and energy on things they have no control over makes them neglect areas with scope for improvement. Blaming other people, their circumstances and their environment leads to a downward spiral of negativity which diminishes their circle of influence.

Highly effective managers have high agency. They focus their efforts in their circle of influence. Paying attention to things within their control enables them to experiment, try different strategies and solve real problems.

Instead of judging and criticizing others when things don’t go as expected, they look internally to their own decisions and actions. This shifts their focus from other people’s weaknesses to their own strengths. Positive energy from exercising their control enlarges their circle of influence.

When faced with a tough problem or a difficult decision, they ask these questions:

• Is it within my circle of influence?
• What can I change about myself or the way I do things that can fix this problem?
• Can I influence and inspire others to enable a change?
• What other alternatives do I have to get the outcome I desire?

Highly effective managers feel empowered to act because they don’t engage in victim mentality or waste time worrying about people, circumstances or conditions outside their control. 

Match energy with physical and mental demands of work 

What can cause managers to become reckless, get stuck with analysis paralysis or choose the status quo?

Not being able to recognize when they’re running on a low mental battery or failing to save their cognitive resources for important decisions or tasks. 

Roy Baumeister says in Willpower “If your work requires you to make hard decisions all day long, at some point you’re going to be depleted and start looking for ways to conserve energy. You’ll look for excuses to avoid or postpone decisions. You’ll look for the easiest and safest option, which often is to stick with the status quo.”

Highly effective managers organize their schedule for optimal utilization by matching their energy with physical and mental demands of work. They use their peak productivity period to do some of their most important work. Prioritizing important work when their reserved bank of mental energy is at its best enables them to think clearly and make conscious decisions. 

Summary

1. Great managers follow simple habits and practices to stay highly effective. 
2. They reframe fear as a sign to evaluate multiple options, ask questions or reconsider assumptions instead of letting fear get in the way of making decisions or taking action. 
3. Instead of giving power to naysayers by allowing them to influence their thinking or how they make decisions, highly effective managers stay away from them. 
4. By working on things within their control instead of wasting time on things outside their control, highly effective managers expand their circle of influence.
5. Maximizing their team’s potential is their primary focus. By highlighting each individual’s strengths and combining them with the right opportunities, highly effective managers build high performance teams. 
6. Effective managers are highly self aware of the limitations of their mind. They don’t let cognitive biases get in the way of how they think or make decisions.
7. They use their peak productivity period to do some of their best work. Matching energy to the cognitive demand of their work makes them highly effective. 

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