Being a great manager is a lot like being a football coach. Your goal isn’t to run each play and score a touchdown by yourself but to make the most of your team, building on their strengths to make them stronger and helping them compensate enough for their weaknesses that they become irrelevant. As a manager, your job is to coach and mentor your team’s lineup into becoming the champions they want to be in their careers.

Successful leaders realize that management isn’t about power or getting staff to accept your authority or for that matter it’s not really about meetings, reports or endless paperwork although at times it can certainly feel that way! It is about empowering the people you manage, encouraging them to reach their potential. The most effective managers see that developing people’s skills (strengths) and removing obstacles so that they can attain the level of success they are destined for will move both of you up the corporate ladder faster than you could ever manage on your own.

Want to help others reach their potential? The most important thing you can do is to model the behaviors you are encouraging in them. Have your own development goals, be an enthusiastic learner and stay open to a lucky break yourself.

Ask questions. We are always to telling our employees if you want to know what a customer is thinking – ask them! Well, we need to do the same thing. Ask your people to describe their current situation and how they see themselves best contributing to the company. Then set goals that will stretch them from their current position towards where they would like to see themselves.  Help them to identify where opportunities lie and how they can improve their prospects of getting there.

If your staff is going to run for their goal line they are going to need your support from the sidelines. They'll need encouragement, advice and of course feedback. But beware; if your employees only hear from you when there is a problem, they will start to doubt their abilities. Make sure you praise them for a job well-done; a little encouragement can go a long way toward keeping employees happy and motivated to give their job everything they have. Help them gravitate toward their strong suits by focusing on what’s working rather than concentrating solely on their weaknesses.

I think this subject is best summed up in the words of the great American football coach Lou Holtz “it’s a fine thing to have ability, but to discover the ability in others is the true test.”