Knowing your management style can help you lead more effectively and build stronger teams. Your management style can help you understand your strengths, shore up your weaknesses, and recruit candidates who thrive under the type of guidance you provide. 

Here’s how to evaluate your own management style. 

Ask yourself, “How would I define ‘good management’?” 

The way you define “good management” says a great deal about the type of management you prize – and thus the type you will seek to emulate in your own leadership interactions.  

To answer this question, think about the ways you’ve been led or managed during your career. Which specific tactics, methods or approaches helped you? Which ones didn’t? Also, consider which of these you have adopted in your own work. 

What are your strengths and weaknesses? 

Once you understand what you value in a manager, look at the ways you embody these traits – or where you struggle with them. For instance, you may believe the best managers know how to delegate, but when you’re under pressure, you find yourself handling tasks yourself instead of handing them off. 

By understanding where you live up to your own ideal and where you fall short, you can better determine what kind of manager you are, as well as what kind you’d like to become. 

What kind of manager does your team need? 

When considering your own ideal and actual vision of what it means to manage a team, you may realize that while your ideal looks one way, your actual approach to your team differs because you believe your team needs that changed approach. 

These moments provide an opportunity for further self-awareness. For example, are you adapting to the team because you’re both in the habit of letting the dynamic unfold a certain way, even though it’s not the most effective for you or your team members? Or are you compromising temporarily in order to help a team member build the skills they need? Both options speak to your approach as a manager.  

The recruiters at SMR Group build relationships with sales and marketing professionals throughout the biotech, medical device and pharmaceutical industries. Contact us today to learn more.