Words NOT to Use as a Manager

As a manager, monitoring how you say things to your employees is important. You want to be respectful and encourage your team to remain open-minded, creative, and innovative.

How you say things to your employees can have long-lasting effects. Therefore, there are words and phrases you should avoid using when speaking with your team. The following are five examples.

As a manager, these are words NOT to use when talking with your employees.

Obviously

Most things are not obvious to everyone. Therefore, using the word “obviously” can put your employees on the defensive. As a result, they are unlikely to effectively listen and respond to what you say.

I Think

Saying “I think” discredits your opinion and diminishes your authority. For instance, saying “I think we should implement this strategy” is less powerful than saying “We should implement this strategy.” Your tone also remains more open and engaging by not using these two words.

Should

Using the word “should” leads to ambiguity. Your employees may be unsure about what you mean.

For instance, if you say to an employee, “Don’t you think we should do that?”, they might say they agree with you even if they do not. Instead, you could say, “Let’s do X because of Y. Do you agree or disagree and why?”

Can’t

Although there are limitations on what your team can do, avoid saying they “can’t” do something. Instead, work with your employees to develop innovative ways to accomplish something that would benefit the company. Changing the focus to creatively solve problems encourages your team to continue moving forward.

I Don’t Have the Time

Telling your employees that you “don’t have the time” to do something suggests they are not important to you. This implication can lead to disengagement, reduced performance, and lower productivity.

If what you are doing truly cannot wait, ask your employee whether you can schedule a time to discuss the issue. Providing support shows you value and respect your employees.

Do You Need Help with Hiring?

Understanding which words and phrases not to use as a manager helps facilitate open communication with your team. Knowing how to focus on more positive language inspires your employees to remain open-minded, creative, and innovative.

If you need help hiring accounting and finance professionals, get in touch with Casey Accounting & Finance Resources. Learn more today.

Becoming a Better Finance Manager: What to Do and What Not to Do

Everyone has room for improvement at work. This includes your role as a finance manager.

Becoming a better finance manager elevates your team’s performance. Your employees likely will stay engaged longer, perform better, and remain with your organization longer.

As a result, you must do what you can to become a better finance manager. The following tips can help.

Becoming a Better Finance Manager

Do: Remain Accessible

Make yourself available to your employees. Encourage them to talk with you about their needs and concerns.

Being accessible shows you value and respect your team. It also improves employee engagement, productivity, and morale.

Don’t: Micromanage

Your role is not to perform your employees’ work. This means you do not need to hover while your team members complete their tasks.

Keep in mind you hired the best talent and trust them to effectively complete their work. You are there to provide guidance, supervision, and mentorship. This includes giving your team the necessary resources, letting them work, and being available for questions and support.

Do: Provide Feedback

Regularly give each employee constructive feedback. Include what they are doing well, what they can do better, and specific ways they can improve.

Constructive feedback builds trust and respect among your employees. It also improves employee engagement, performance, and retention.

Don’t: Shame Your Employees

Publicly embarrassing your employees does not establish your authority. Rather, it undermines your credibility and turns your team against you.

Instead, privately suggest methods to improve an employee’s performance. Use the discussion to empower your team member with specific steps to more effectively perform their work.

Do: Celebrate Accomplishments

Acknowledge when your employees reach a target, finish a project, or attain a goal. Include what each team member accomplished, the steps they took, and their impact on the organization.

You may want to send your employee a congratulatory email or take your team to lunch. Also, let other managers, supervisors, and leaders know of your employee’s or team’s success. Plus, provide a bonus, raise, or promotion when appropriate.

Celebrating employee accomplishments encourages your team to repeat the behaviors that led to the results. This elevates employee engagement, performance, and job satisfaction.

Don’t: Ignore Your Employees’ Skill Development

Employee skill development is imperative for career progression. Not having opportunities for professional development means your team members cannot move up within the organization. Lack of advancement encourages your employees to look for jobs elsewhere.

Instead, delegate tasks to your employees to promote their skill development. Also, offer stretch assignments, job shadowing, and cross-training opportunities. Plus, let your team members lead meetings and represent the company at industry events. These actions promote employee longevity with your company.

Effective Leadership Means Hiring the Best

Understanding what to do and what not to do as a finance manager makes you a more effective leader. The more your employees feel valued and respected, the longer they will stay engaged, perform their best, and remain with your organization.

Free up the time needed to manage your team by making Casey Accounting & Finance Resources part of your recruiting process. Get started today.

Management Challenges to Avoid

Managing an accounting and finance team has its challenges. Among them are adequate communication with your team, performance levels meeting standards, and maintaining enough team members to handle workflows. Fortunately, there are ways to overcome these issues and continue to move forward.

Discover three challenges most accounting and finance managers face and how to avoid them. 

Low Communication with the Team  

Inadequate communication with your team members can lead to problems down the road. For instance, your employees may not understand their role in a project, what they should be focusing on at a given time, or when the work should be done by. To avoid these issues, talk with your employees on a frequent basis. Redefine your standards for reaching team goals and objectives. Ensure your employees understand their individual and team responsibilities and deadlines. Reinforce the importance of asking questions.

Performance Levels Below Expectations

Your employees will have times where they are less productive than usual. This can affect your other team members, especially if they need to take on additional tasks to maintain productivity. When this happens, you need to motivate your employees to get back to their typical performance level. For instance, schedule time to talk privately with your team member. Clarify what their work hours, targets, and goals are. Compare your expectations to actual performance. Ask what has been causing the employee’s decrease in performance and how you can help. Work together to create a plan to improve by a certain deadline. Provide constructive feedback until you get together for further discussion.

The Team Is Understaffed

Consistently having more work than your employees can handle can lead to burnout. This is why you should consider adding a permanent or temporary member to your team. The additional worker can take on tasks that team members had been adding to their plates. This division of responsibilities allows everyone to focus on what they do best while reducing stress levels.

Work with a Professional Recruiter

Managing an accounting and finance team poses significant challenges. Among them is lack of adequate communication with your team, employees not meeting performance expectations, and regularly having too much work for your team to handle. Fortunately, these issues can be worked on with clear planning and action.

When you need help finding qualified accounting and finance candidates who are a good fit for your company and department cultures, partner with a recruiter from Casey Accounting & Finance Resources. Find out more today.

How to Retain Your Best Talent: Employees Need to Be Connected to the Company

It has been said that it takes a lot more to maintain a happy workforce than it did years ago. This is supported by statistics, like the fact that nearly two-thirds of the workforce is actively disengaged from their jobs, and many others are using work time to search for other opportunities.

One of the better ways of keeping employees satisfied in their careers is to offer support for learning and development. Let’s face it, the convergence of personal and professional is happening more often in the workforce. People want support for their goals. How can your company develop enough programs to meet the unique needs of all its employees?

1. Make learning a core value in the workplace.

When learning is a value of the company, it becomes a normal aspect of the culture. This enables employees – who previously would be searching for new learning opportunities outside of work – to confidently pursue their professional development. Create a system to reimburse employees for continuing education. Send them to conferences. Purchase webinars if your budget is smaller. Encourage your staff to read articles throughout the day.

2. Identify learning and development programs that cater to employees at all levels.

Because learning styles can be so vastly different from one employee to the next, often driven by generational characteristics, learning and development programs need to be varied. Blend classroom learning programs with on-demand eLearning. Survey employees to find out what they want to learn and link this to their career goals. Not everyone wants to sit in front of a computer for a 60-minute webinar, and not everyone wants to go hear a local speaker.

3. Bring industry-leading programs and experts directly to employees.

Get your employees excited about learning and connect them deeper to the company by bringing learning to them. Set up brown bag lunch and learn sessions, offer special talks from industry leaders, and create a full learning environment that includes employees of all generations and interests. Taking that information from outside topics and relating it to your company’s processes provides a natural connection for your employees.

4. Promote and reward learning achievers.

To create a deep connection with employees, link their learning efforts to performance. If they participate, reward them for making this commitment to excellence. Set up promotions and bonuses based on learning initiatives. The incentives don’t have to be anything major. You can tie salaries to something like continuing education or certifications. A small gesture like a gift card to a movie theater will be appreciated, especially if you recognize employees publicly.

Work with a Leading Financial Recruiter in Chicago

When your financial group has an employment need for top financial talent, work with the award-winning financial recruiters at Casey Accounting & Finance Resources. Contact our great team today to get started!

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