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Essay: The Relationship between Manager Assertiveness and having to tell Employees Exactly What to Do

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  • Subject area(s): Management essays
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  • Published: 9 September 2015*
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  • Words: 1,157 (approx)
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Not only is it important to tell workers exactly what to do by being direct, but it is of an equal importance to be assertive with them. If a manager is too passive with his or her employees, it may lead to a managerial mess, as many workers constantly try to test managers’ boundaries.
One of the main reasons as to why employees end up misbehaving in the workplace is primarily because they are not managed correctly, and those who are in authority allow them to get that way. When it comes to being a manager, you shouldn’t expect employees to respect you on a personal level, but you should expect them to respect your authority on a professional level.
Managers should not only be consistently setting up new boundaries, but they should also be enforcing them. Without enforcing them, if an employee overpasses it and nothing is advised to him or her, they will think it is okay to continue to do so. How will they know that it is wrong unless you tell them? It is of an utmost importance to also advise them that you can’t tolerate it.
As a manager, to do their job they have the innate obligation to do only the things that is right for the company that he or she works for. This includes of setting the appropriate boundaries, and not exercising too much sympathy and empathy as it may cause the manager to get too involved with their personal lives. Otherwise, he or she may promote favoritism thereby causing other employees to be jealous. Although this may be true, there is no need to be overly rude and cold towards employees. Being assertive and setting boundaries doesn’t always mean one has to be disrespectful or even rude to their employees. The difference between an authoritarian manager who respects their employees and for managers who don’t differentiates the results of whether or not employees comply or commit themselves to work. In order to have them commit rather than only comply, it is important to be respectful while being assertive. When employees are willing to commit, they are more than likely to deliver work that exceeds a manager’s expectations. (Alexander Hamilton Institute, 2012)

The Importance for Managers to Be a Leader
When it comes to capabilities to effectively communicate with employees, good managers are able to sustain and encourage self-assurance, enthusiasm, and emotional stability while pursuing their day-to-day activities. The position of being a manager can, at times, be quite stressful and overwhelming, so the ideal manager should not let it get to them.
Why is this important when it comes to effectively advising employees as to what has to be done?
If managers aren’t able to maintain self-control of their emotions, then it is likely that they won’t be able to do well at leading employees. Managers are commonly seen as a workplace role model, so if their employees see them as unable to maintain control, it is likely the employees won’t either, thereby leading to decreased amounts of productivity.

Why Communication Is a Key Aspect for Managers
In order to ensure efficient productivity among employees, it is important for them to be able to effectively communicate with them. Moreover, they must also be able to report to higher managers regarding productivity statistics and the like. Not only will great managers be able to communicate well with employees to advise them what they have to do, but they will also be active listeners. Without being able to listen to an employee when he or she has questions about their job or what they have to do, it is likely that they won’t end up doing what they are supposed to do. Another important trait for managers is being able to get a message across without having to overly emphasize it verbally. They know how to implement non-verbal communication techniques such as body language in order to get an important message across to employees. (Melinda Hill Mendoza, n.d).

Common Traits of a Good Employee’ Where You Don’t Have to Be As Specific
There are various indicators that strongly determine whether or not if you have to be overly specific when trying to get an employee to do something. Here I’ve included some of the top traits when it comes to being an effective listener as an employee.
‘ Action Oriented: When you tell an employee to do something, and if he or she is action-oriented, you will see them do it right away’ no questions asked. Although sometimes their work may not be sufficient, most of the time they will provide great work with high levels of productivity. Also, when it comes to productivity, they usually get things done a lot sooner than employees who are stagnant.
‘ Intelligent: Intelligence is important for an employee to thoroughly understand what you want them to do without you having to be too specific with them. Not only that, but when you tell an intelligent employee what to do, most of the time they will do it perfectly correct. It is very rare for an employee who has high levels of intelligence to ask too many questions for additional specificity.
‘ Ambitious: Having an employee with ambition is important because they are well-known to come up with creative ideas that can bring the productivity of any company to the next level. So rather than spending extra time telling them exactly what they have to do, they will work right away, and by the time they are done they will provide you with a genius idea to do things quicker, and you may want to consider forwarding it to your boss.
‘ Autonomous: Employees with an autonomous trait are known to begin working on a project the second you explain to them what needs to be done. They are extremely independent and they require no ‘hand-holding’ whatsoever. This is an important trait, because as a manager, they have a lot of tasks on hand and they don’t want to be wasting it answering a hundred questions about completing a simple task.
‘ Confidence: It is more likely for an unconfident employee to ask questions about exactly what they need to do than a confident employee. This is primarily due to the fact that employees who are confident will trust there instinct on what they’ve heard from the manager, and they won’t second guess their initial impression. On the other hand, unconfident employees will lack their confidence in trusting their understanding, causing them to ask a lot of unnecessary questions.
‘ Leadership: After confidence comes leadership. When you are explaining a task to an employee with leadership skills, you will be confident that they will over-deliver on your expectations. They have the experience to not only deliver the job promptly without any questions ask, but they can set the bar higher in terms of quality and productivity.

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