One of the most important decisions you will make as a small business owner is hiring a manager to take care of day-to-day operations of your business. This is the person who will be running the show for better or worse. Hiring a bad manager can hurt your business in a number of ways. The customers will walk away. The employees will complain and leave. The reputation of your business will decline beyond repair. In the end, the business will become a mess that can take long time to recover, if at all.
That is why it is imperative to pay careful attention and take time in hiring manager. I discussed best practices in hiring a manager in earlier post. I mentioned that you need to consider personal qualities of the potential hire – even more than the skills. So what are those qualities you need to look for when hiring a manager?
- Trustworthy – This is perhaps the most important quality manager needs to have. If you cannot trust him with your business all bets are off. After all, this is the person who will be running the show. He will either grow your business or run it to the ground. You need to feel comfortable that he will take good care of all aspects of the business in your absence and will keep you informed of any potential issues before they become serious.
- Self-starter – If the manager waits for your directions at every step of the way you may have an issue at hand. After all, the reason you are hiring a manager is because you don’t have enough time to take care of it all. You want a manager who will take care of things on his own while still ensuring his actions are in alignment with your expectations.
- Customer Centric – Let’s face it. At the end of the day it’s the customers who will keep you in business. If the manager cannot treat your customers well it will not take long for them to leave and your business to decline. The manager represents your business to customers and whatever he does (or not) will impact it. Customer focus is one of the most important qualities you need to look for when hiring a manager.
- Able to Handle Stress – The job of a manager is one of toughest in small business. At any given time he needs to juggle number of balls in taking care of employees, customers, vendors and so on. It can become very stressful at times. The manager needs to handle this stress with a cool head and not panic when situation becomes challenging. If he caves in during these challenging situations the employees and customers will throw up their hands and walk away.
- Organized – This quality is somewhat related to the previous point on ability to handle stress. If the manager is well organized he will not get into stressful situations as often to begin with. For manager it is important not to drop the ball and being organized helps keep them all in the air. In my unscientific estimate, an organized manager is at least 25% more effective compared to the one that is not.
- Go-getter – When the going gets tough, the tough gets going! And the business manager will face these types of tough situations all the time. If he cannot think on his feet and find a solution quickly, it will be very difficult for him to manage the business. If you want to see a good manager with go-getter quality go to McDonald’s during morning or lunch rush hour and see how the manager handles the business. This is the type of manager you want to get for your business.
- Good Communicator –A manager is the intermediary between the owner and the employees, customers and other people supporting your business. If he is not able to articulate well your expectations to them things will not get done. In the same way, if he is not able to communicate the state of the business back to the owner, you will be in the dark, not knowing how things are going.
What other qualities do you consider important for the manager of a small business to have?
In my opinion a good Business manager must have leadership quality, people management quality, Work management, good communication skills and learning capabilities. A good business owner is a very strong pillar of any business organization.
Yes, I agree. These are the general qualities a small business owner must posses in order to make his business successful. Managing and problem solving skills are key for managing the business. Thanks for sharing your views. They are really helpful.
Harry,
I think it’s very easy to over think the skill set necessary for a manager. Basically, this person has the ability and understanding to run a business steadily and consistently in accordance with the owner or founder’s vision. Certainly this person must be equal to the challenges they will face and should certainly have managed people before. But I think some simple skills in organization and effective communication are a great start.
Heather
I agree with your assessment. Organizational skills and communication are necessary for good small business manager. However, for a manager to be great and take the business to the next level some of the skills such as being a go-getter and ability to handle stress described here would certainly be needed. Would you agree?
Harry