How to excel under different types of management

Many will agree that developing the perfect working relationship with your manager can be hugely beneficial to your morale, your opportunities and your progression within a role! However, as you progress through your career and change job you may notice that no two managers will manage the same way. Learning how to excel under different styles of management is an invaluable skill to learn early on or at any stage in your career, that’s why we’ve provided a guide to working with different management styles!

How you define different management styles can be a very personal thing, but some organisations will include psychometric or personality testing as a team building exercise to help everyone understand different strengths, weaknesses and communication styles. This can give you a firm basis to know how to communicate with different management styles, but you can still do it easily enough without too, you just have to use a little bit of creative thinking and empathy to see where they’re coming from.

Different leadership and management styles

Some of the most commonly encountered management styles are listed below.

Micro management

Often enacted by managers who are new to management and are still developing their delegation, coaching and trust with their team, macro managers tend to require lots of updates on tasks and projects.

Democratic management

Democratic managers encourage participation from their team on all levels of decision making and are very good and fostering cultures of collaboration and ideation, but ultimately the decision rests with them.

Authoritative management

These types of managers tend to be very goal-oriented and offer exact instructions on how to deliver projects and complete tasks.

Collaborative management

Collaborative styles encourage discussion and sharing ideas before any decision is made, taking into account everyone’s opinion. Decisions are often made by majority favour rather than solely based on the manager’s ideas.

How to manage your manager

Whether your manager fits into one of the categories outlined above (or maybe even a few of the categories!), there are a few actions you can take to help ensure you and your manager have a good working relationship and can work together in an optimal way.

Find the right communication style

Some managers favour directness, some prefer a conversational tone, finding a way to communicate with your manager in the clearest way possible will allow you both to quickly convey direction and feedback with minimal friction. For some they may favour a quick five-minute call to go over a task, others an email and some may prefer instant messaging services like Teams, Slack or Skype for Business.

Align your expectations

If you are unsure on a task and don’t want to submit just to have to redo it, ask your manager for a quick call to go over it, or if they don’t have time to squeeze you in that day, ask for five bullet points to work from. This way you’ll be more aligned with their expectations for the task in the most efficient way possible.

Know their goals

Understanding your manager’s goals is probably one of the best ways to know why they communicate or organise projects the way they do. If they’re driven by stringent KPIs they’re probably going to be more goal and task-oriented than someone who is trying to improve company culture or upskill a team, who will be more focused on the pastoral care element of their role.

Once you have a solid understanding of their goals and what pressures they’re under, you can better understand why they’ve asked you to do your tasks and can deliver them in line with their goals.

Out-perform!

The ideal scenario is to perform all of your tasks and initiatives to a very high standard, and if you have a thorough understanding of your manager’s priorities, how they like to communicate and what their expectations are of you, you can deliver work that is going to wow and impress them!

Whatever your manager’s style of communicating and leading, it’s important to remember that they are human beings too, first and foremost. They face their own pressures and anxieties just like you do. That said, they’re job is to help you do your job to the best of your ability with useful coaching, support and empathy. It’s a two-way streak for both of you, and finding the right way to communicate and work together will benefit you both greatly and pave the way for career progression.

If you’re looking for your next role, our consultants would be happy to help you find a role and hone your interview skills. Get in touch to find out how we can help you find your next career move.