Why you may be struggling in your role as manager

I have always admired the way my friend Joshua takes staff empowerment seriously.

Every year he sets aside sufficient resources for staff training, motivation and provision of conducive environment for growth and job satisfaction.

However, recently he shocked me when he told me that he hardly has time for seminars, workshops or reading books.

His argument is that he is too busy ensuring his customers and employees are happy and well empowered.

Reflecting on his narrative, I find so many business owners and managers who have stagnated or stopped growing because they no longer invest in personal and professional growth. They believe as long as they get the right people in the right place within their organisation all is well. But a team is as strong as their leader.

As a business manager, investing in your personal growth and development has the greatest multiplier in the overall growth of your business. It helps you stay abreast of competition and make the right decisions.

The highest paid business leaders are the ones who have mastered the art of leading, as well as managing people and other resources. This attribute is a factor of intentional learning and experience.

There are a number of ways you can increase your growth and improve your performance regardless of what you do.

First, you need to interact with others both within and without your organisation.

One attribute of struggling managers is that they are workaholic who spend a lot of time in their offices working and hardly socialises or interacts with others except on work related issues. Isolation is the greatest impediment to self-growth.

Second, take time to travel around your country and abroad if you can. Nothing opens the mind of a leader more than the exposure that comes from seeing how others far and wide do things.

Third, take frequent breaks from work to relax, rest and reflect. Some things in life become clear when one is relaxed and still without having a thousand things baying for attention.

Very often prolonged overworking decreases productivity and negatively affects decision making in the workplace.

In addition to holidays set a side at least one or two days or afternoons per week to yourself. Learn to trust and delegate and work through people.

Third, commit yourself to learn a new thing continuously. It is an open secret that most successful business leaders are avid readers who voracious read thousands of pages annually. Today you can learn many things, even skills online by simply watching educational videos for free on YouTube.

The internet is a sea of precious unlimited amounts of transformative information.

Fourth, get out of your comfort zone. Set higher and challenging goals and pursue them. This will stretch your imagination and creativity.

Fifth, don’t fear failure. The courage to start something new or do things differently is success already. Learn to accept failure as part of life and move on every time you fail but with the lessons. Every failure is a learning experience. And most importantly always know that failure of an enterprise is not an entrepreneur’s personal failure. It could be a wake-up call to do things differently or different things.

Mr Kiunga is a business trainer and the author of The Art of Entrepreneurship: Strategies to Succeed in a Competitive Market. [email protected].