Empathy-Driven
A large part of what has made me an effective People Manager is being empathy-driven in my leadership.
I place a lot of value and dedicated a lot of time towards the areas below - making sure the team is well supported, feel safe around me and thereby foster trust in order to better lead the team in other areas.
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While I won't go into details here, I have dealt with a variety of People specific issues within my career.
Mental Health Support
While the role of a manager and a psychologist are vastly different, I personally believe that there are surface level similarities that managers should try and provide: Guidance, a safe space for people to talk and be honest about their strengths and weaknesses and awareness of people's mental health.
Psychological Safety
I strive to provide safety within my meetings with individuals in order for them to feel that they can open up to me about difficulties their experiencing at work, so that I may try and help them resolve those difficulties.
I have experience with supporting people through all kinds of hardships.
Fostering Work-Life Balance
Making sure that people feel they have a good work-life balance is equally important to me, so that they can come to work fully refreshed and committed. Where that is not the case, I try to coach around good practices and/or try to give support that is catered to individual needs.
Offering Support
As part of my personality, I often try to resolve issues when I become aware of them and my thinking immediately jumps to possible solutions. Where that is helpful and wanted by individuals, I try to support them as best I can.
Being Understanding
Being understanding to each individual's unique situation is also key in making sure they feel supported.