What to look for when hiring a manager

By: Bayou Trésors Staff ​

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As you build your business and your clientele grows, you’ll need more talent. This means you’ll need experienced team leaders, or managers, to help guide this new talent.

So, what qualities should you look for in a manager? The lists below address this.

Experience in the field.
The manager should have experience in the specific job that they’re hired to oversee. This means, if you’re hiring someone to oversee a group of office assistants, the candidate should have previous experience as an office assistant. Many new CEOs make the mistake of hiring managers from outside industries who have no hands-on knowledge in the field their meant to oversee. This means they’ll have a tough time relating to the team they’re assigned to guide. They won’t be able to relate to their specific challenges and day-to-day tasks. It can also lead to the manager making poor decisions on behalf of their staff. It’s much better to hire someone with years of on-the-job experience.

Poise under pressure.
Team leaders must often rally their staff to meet deadlines. This sort of pressure is not for everyone. Many skilled people suffer from anxiety, and they thrive in non-management roles. This is fine. Everyone’s different. And there is a place for these talented individuals in your company. However, when hiring a manager, you want to find someone who can work quickly, work with a clear head, and maintain poise in a high-pressure environment. This is crucial, because a manager who remains calm and effective under stress encourages their team to do the same. Similarly, someone who is not cut out for this sort of pressure will display extreme anxiety, which will negatively affect team morale.
  
Excellent communication skills
Proficient managers value communication and use it effectively. This means they understand that communication is a multifaceted skill. Presenting to a large audience is quite different from speaking to a person in a one-on-one setting or sending an email to a colleague. A good manager should be skilled in all aspects of communication. They know how to grasp the attention of a large audience by leveraging proper modulation, gestures, and word choice. They also utilize active listening, nonverbal communication skills, empathy, and appropriate social etiquette during conversations with individuals. In addition to this, emails, texts, and social media messaging platforms are also used properly and with good manners. This leads to a clear understanding of what’s expected from each team member. It also ensures that every member of the team feels respected and capable of producing good work.

Foresight that helps them make wise decisions
A solid and dependable manager makes wise choices. This is because they are teachable. They use previous events and insightful guidance from others to predict various outcomes. Then, they make decisions that lead to the outcome that is best for the team. Instead of making reactive decisions based purely on emotion, they rely on foresight to lay out plans that lead to positive results.
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While studying each candidate’s application and observing them during the interview process, look for:

How they communicate with you
Are they prone to talk over you? Do they overshare? Are they able to maintain appropriate eye contact with you? When interacting with you and with other members of your staff, such as your receptionist or personal assistant, are they polite? How well do they listen?

Their level of anxiety during the interview
It’s understandable if the applicant is a bit nervous. That’s only natural. Take a moment to observe how much their nerves affect their performance during the interview. Are they able to answer your questions coherently? Are they poised? Do they have the wherewithal to ask you insightful questions? Are they noticeably fidgety or demonstrating other symptoms of anxiety?

What do their references say?
Do their references say they manifest leadership qualities? Do their previous employers say they seemed more personally ambitious or more of a team player? Do their previous employers say they maintained positive relationships with their colleagues? Or were they known as a bit of a hothead? Were they ever accused of racist or sexist behavior?

Study their previous body of work
Is their work innovative? Is their work a good fit for your company and its vision?

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Listed below are a few questions you might pose during the interview process.

• What aspects of your previous job did you enjoy most?
• What would you have changed about your previous job?
• Let’s say your supervisor gives you a directive that, though not illegal, feels morally wrong. What do you do? And why?
• Tell me about a time when you solved a problem on the job.
• One of the employees under your supervision has a disability that is getting worse and affecting their performance. Though they’re working as hard as they can, they continue to underperform. How do you handle this?
• In your opinion, which quality is more important in a leader and why: empathy or determination.

The correct answer to each of the above questions depends on the type of culture you aim to promote in your company.

But if you want to hire a manager for the long haul, who will have a lasting positive influence on the company, you’ll want to look for an experienced and skilled communicator who is humble enough to make wise decisions and who leads with empathy.