No Bad Managers

51 Hacks to Become
a Better Manager

Learn how to improve the employee-manager relationship

with these easy-to-implement management hacks today.

© 2018 Reflektive Inc.

Foreword

75%
Anyone who has been thrown into simple, actionable hacks to improve their
a management position knows that management practices today.
managing people isn’t easy. There is no
one handbook or guide to becoming a
We gathered our favorite hacks, scoured
of the reasons people
LinkedIn, asked our Luminary customers,
great manager, and depending on the team
and drew upon personal experience quit come down to
you are managing, your management skills
need to be diverse and flexible. There are
in order to find the best and smartest their managers.
management hacks for you. Making small According to Gallup
thousands of advice articles and guides
daily changes in your habits can lead to
to management on the internet, but they
great results in management, so try out
can be daunting and hard to digest. That’s
a few hacks per week and test how well
why we made this quick management
they work for you.
hacks e-book — to give managers

© 2018 Reflektive Inc. 2

 hack
[hak]
Verb.
“a strategy or technique adopted in order to manage
one’s time and activities in a more efficient way, derived
from solving a computer hardware or program limitation.”

© 2018 Reflektive Inc. 3

Contents

1. Managing Yourself 5

2. Coaching and Development 7

3. Feedback and Recognition 9

4. Goals and Alignment 11

5. Reviews and Performance 13

6. Grab Bag 15

7. Conclusion 16

© 2018 Reflektive Inc. 4

 One

Managing Yourself

01. Rise early — get tasks done early in the morning to 04. Keep meetings on task and avoid wasting time
increase efficiency. on tangents.
Intentionally waking up early has been heralded by This one seems simple, but studies show that about
time management experts for decades. Studies show 15% of the time in an hour-long meeting is wasted
that humans are more productive in the first few hours on tangents. Here’s a fun infographic from The Muse
of their day, so tackle your most important tasks early about wasteful meetings.
on in order to have a more successful day.

05. Build support before you propose projects or ideas.

02. Focus on one thing at a time and avoid The hardest part of getting an idea off the ground is
“task-hopping”. getting the support you need. Harvard Business Review
Multitasking can be a huge trap for managers. Getting compiled an entire guide to winning support for your
more done is not always better than focusing on one new idea – you should check it out.
thing at a time and often if you focus on one thing,
you will do that one thing much better than if you were
06. Don’t always be right. Show your employees that you
distracted with other tasks.
can learn from them too.
Know-it-all’s are rarely respected in the workplace. This
03. Protect your “in the zone” time to make sure you applies to managers and leaders, too. If you want to be
aren’t interrupted. a great manager, you will show your employees that they
Make sure your direct reports are aware of any time you can teach you just as much as you can teach them.
want to set aside for heads-down work. By setting the
expectation that you will be unavailable during that time,
you will be able to get more out of that protected time.

© 2018 Reflektive Inc. 5

07. Strengthen your own skills, always work on 10. Don’t be afraid to cancel recurring meetings.
developing new skills and mastering old ones. Just because a meeting is recurring, doesn’t mean it
Learning doesn’t end once you get a promotion or needs to happen every week. Often, recurring meetings
become a manager. The landscape is always changing, force people to meet when they have nothing to
which is why managers should always be focused on discuss, so be sure to define an agenda before all of
learning and developing new skills to keep up with your recurring meetings to make sure you really need
their employees. to be holding them.

08. Ask for feedback yourself. 11. Admit when you are wrong.
The best way to learn about your performance is Great managers see opportunities in mistakes and
to ask your coworkers or direct reports. Be sure to choose to embrace them instead of deny them. Check
consistently ask for honest feedback so you can out the four reasons great leaders admit their mistakes
calibrate your management style accordingly. as outlined by Forbes.

09. Share information.

Building employee trust is a huge driver of employee
retention. One of the biggest ways managers can
lose employee trust is by keeping them in the dark by
withholding company performance data and other
important information. HubSpot has a great guide on
how to handle transparency with your employees, you
can find it here.

Coaching and Development

© 2018 Reflektive Inc. 6

 Two

Coaching and Development

12. Set aside time weekly to give feedback to your Luminary Hack

direct reports.
Diana Clough
As a manager, it can be hard to find time to give feedback Learning & Development, Program Manager at
to your direct reports, but weekly feedback is crucial MediaMath

to your employees’ engagement. Creating a culture of

feedback starts with management, so don’t forget to add
some weekly feedback time into your calendar. 15. Don’t micromanage.
“One of the most important aspects of
garnering motivation and true performance is
13. Set clear due dates for your employees in order to
to give your direct ownership of their projects.
set expectations.
Micromanaging can stifle opportunities for
Without clear deadlines, important projects and better solutions you may not have thought of
initiatives can get sidetracked and forgotten about. yourself and it also prevents the employee from
Additionally, by setting due dates, you are ensuring that feeling true ownership in their work which also
your employees know a project is important, which will means they may not be giving you their A game.”
help them prioritize.

14. Ask your team to write the job description for their
dream job. 16. Ask for one personal goal to be included quarterly
How can your direct reports grow if they’re not sure in OKRs.
what they are trying to grow into? Having employees Asking your employee to include personal goals in
write up the future job description they aspire to will their quarterly goal-setting exercises will show them
ensure you are helping them reach their goals. that you are invested in them outside of work.

© 2018 Reflektive Inc. 7

 Manager Hack

Kevin Beach
Customer Success Manager, Reflektive
17. Set up training programs for new employees.
Simply signing up your employees for training is
ineffective because managers cannot fully leverage
the benefits of employee training when they are 20. Prep for 1-on-1s the way you do for any
not involved in the process. Be involved in the important meeting: Give it some thought and
training process so you can be available to help your set an agenda ahead of time.
employees get up to speed in their new roles. “Similar to recurring meetings, weekly 1-on-1s
can be wasteful if there is nothing to discuss.
18. It’s never too soon to build professional development Setting an agenda for your conversations
goals for your direct reports: Do it early and do it often. sets the meeting up for success. It provides
structure and ensures the meeting doesn’t
As a manager, you should always be encouraging your
veer too far off the rails. At Reflektive, we use
employees to develop and learn outside of the direct
our own 1-on-1 Agenda tool for our meetings.
scope of their work. To increase their engagement, be
This intuitive tool lets us collaborate on the
sure to ask your employees where they want to be in
agenda, where each of us can update from
five years, or what new skills they want to acquire to
the Reflektive plug-in or web application.”
make them stronger team players.

19. Be present – turn away from your laptop, phone and

any other distractions when your employee is coming 21. Schedule consistent 1-on-1s with your direct reports
to you for something. to give and receive feedback.
Empathetic leaders and managers truly listen to their One of our customer success managers, Kevin
employees. One way to do this is to provide your Beach, wrote a great article about the importance of
employees your full undivided attention. Be conscious consistent 1-on-1s. If you view your 1-on-1 meetings
of your body language and eye contact to make sure are a chore, check out some great ideas to spice them
employees feel like they are being heard. up in his article.

Feedback and Recognition

© 2018 Reflektive Inc. 8

 Three

Feedback and Recognition

Manager Hack

Jimmie Tyrrell
22. Use employee engagement surveys.
Co-Founder and Director of Engineering at Reflektive
Engagement surveys and polls are a great way to make
your employees feel heard. Anonymous feedback
helps employees give truthful and honest feedback,
which can be beneficial to the success of your team. 25. “Socially engineer” opportunities for people
to give feedback to others.
Example: First week – tell new hires to use
23. Ask your team to review their peers after a project.
your recognition wall to recognize somebody
Establishing a culture of reviews and feedback starts
who helped them onboard.
with management. The more employees get exposed
to peer feedback, the more open they will be to
receiving it in the future, which will create a culture of
openness and willingness to be critiqued.
26. Use a recognition wall to boost morale and showcase
employee accomplishments.
24. Practice “Triple A Recognition.” The old adage, “what gets talked about gets done,” is
Here’s how you do it: Acknowledge who they are especially relevant when recognition is given to team
and what they did. Appreciate them with thanks members, since it helps shape their mindset on what is
and specifically pointing out the behavior and why important. Positive feedback and praise are low cost/
it helps and finally, show some affection for their no cost strategies that help employees stay engaged
actions to reinforce your recognition...think high fives, and satisfied in their work. Read more on the ROI of
handshakes, fist bumps. recognition in the workplace.

© 2018 Reflektive Inc. 9

27. Ask how they want to be rewarded. 29. Do a “communication styles” training.
Making yourself aware of your employees preferences Employees are like a box of chocolates – you never
and motivations will help you keep them engaged and know what you’re going to get. Not all employees prefer
productive. Some employees will respond differently in-person feedback, and conversely, not all employees
to rewards, for example rewards of food versus more prefer feedback via a tool. Hold a quick training with your
time to work from home. Asking is a great way to team to understand each of your individual employees’
understand each employees’ needs and preferences. feedback and communication preferences.

28. Engage executives in giving recognition. 30. Ask your manager and other cross-functional leaders
Kudos from an executive team member will go a long to send a quick thanks or shoutout.
way with your team. As a manager, you have the ability Similar to asking executives to give recognition, making
to communicate more closely with your company’s the effort to encourage other company leaders to show
executive or leadership team, so try to use that power their appreciation will have a lasting impact on your team.
to encourage the higher ups to recognize your team.

Goals and Alignment

© 2018 Reflektive Inc. 10

 Four

Goals and Alignment

31. Set achievable goals for you and your team. Manager Hack

Set your employees up for success by setting Erick Tai

challenging, yet achievable goals for them. In order Co-Founder and VP of Engineering at Reflektive
for a team goal to succeed, it should be accepted and
recognized as important by all members of the team.
Be sure to revisit progress on the goal in order to keep
34. Be specific with your questions to avoid
the deadline on track.
vague responses.
“Asking people ‘so what would you like to be
32. Check in on your individual and team goals on a
in the future’ or ‘what would you like to learn,’
regular basis, and be open to tweaking them so they
most people respond just as vaguely: ‘I want
are both realistic and motivating for your team.
to work on challenging projects’ or ‘I want to
Goals should evolve over time, so don’t be afraid to be promoted.’ Instead, ask ‘What would do
recalibrate your team goals as time passes in order to you want on your resume in six months? One,
keep them relevant. they will have to actually think about how they
want to describe their accomplishments. Two,
this will translate into actual projects and
33. Use SMART Goals. Specific, Measureable, Achievable,
skill sets, allowing for a great conversation
Relevant, Time-bound.
mapping it to real projects.’”
Good managers set goals for their employees, but
great managers set SMART goals. SMART goals will
provide managers with a framework for evaluating
performance, which can help eliminate bias in reviews.

© 2018 Reflektive Inc. 11

35. Give direct reports visibility into your goals. Manager Hack

This goes back to establishing employee trust. By Jimmie Tyrrell

giving employees insight into your goals, they will feel Co-Founder and Director of Engineering at Reflektive
included in the goals of the organization and feel more
connected to the mission. With Reflektive, employees
across the company can view their manager’s public
38. Set up automatic labels from emails when
goals, which helps promote a sense of community.
there are actionable events.
In Reflektive, goal emails are usually a good
36. Align employee tasks and projects with team and
trigger that a conversation should occur. I
company goals.
make sure those emails have a bright label
Goal-setting is great, but without alignment to a and bubble up to the top of my inbox.
company’s overall goals, your goals can lose sight
and relevance. There will always be one-off tasks for
39. Convert qualitative goals into milestones.
employees, but make sure that the bulk of their work
and assigned tasks are aligned overall. For example, if an employee wants the
goal of “better communication,” I would
convert that into two milestones. One might
37. Ask your employees what they’re willing to commit to.
be, “Participate in a post-mortem to get
Figuring out what your employees are willing to comfortable speaking in a group setting.” A
commit to will help you determine what projects will follow-up would be, “Lead a presentation to
be the best fit for them. Employees will not be engaged demonstrate communication skills.” This lets
if they are not passionate and willing to commit to us prepare for the big events together, and
something, so being forward with them about it will clarifies expectations for both parties.
help both of you.

Reviews and Performance

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 Five

Reviews and Performance

40. Don’t start compiling all of your feedback only at Luminary Hack

review time; take notes on performance continuously

Katie Hopkins
throughout the year. Head of Talent at The Infatuation
Trying to remember a year’s worth of performance
can be incredibly difficult and lead to bias in the
review process. Be sure to document your direct
42. Stay away from ratings during performance
reports’ performance continuously throughout the
reviews.
year. This will save you time come review season
and ensure that your employees are receiving a “At The Infatuation, we’re trying to stay away
fair evaluation. Reflektive’s 1-on-1 tools as well as from a rating or “grade” during performance
our goals and check-ins products help managers review time. I’ve found people can get hung
document performance in between review cycles for up on that number. They fixate on it, instead of
this purpose. focusing on improving the skills or behaviors
that will actually create progress. Save grading
for goal setting, and keep reviews qualitative.”
41. Keep all of your notes on your employees’
performance in one place so your meetings are
consistent and you can address any issues quickly.
Paper and Google Docs are not sufficient enough to
track employee performance data. We recommend
using a tool to keep all of your notes and comments
organized and easily accessible.

© 2018 Reflektive Inc. 13

43. Always double-check your reviews before you submit 45. Individualize improvement suggestions and plans.
to ensure they are not biased. As a great manager, you recognize that all of your
Minimize bias in your performance reviews by ensuring employees take criticism and feedback in different
that there is no mention to an employees’ gender, ways. This is why it’s important to individualize all of
ethnicity, or economic status in your comments. Consult your comments and avoid generalizing their specific
BiasInterrupters.org’s great worksheet on identifying bias behaviors that are impacting their performance.
in performance evaluations if you are unsure.

46. Recognize when to walk away.

44. Prepare areas of development for employees who are Sometimes disengaged employees cannot be
not meeting expectations. saved. This is why it’s important to recognize when
Recognizing that an employee is falling behind is one an employee just might not be the best fit for
thing, but coaching them to improve is something that your company.
separates bad managers from great ones. Make sure
you head into a performance review with some concrete
details about how an employee can improve performance.

Grab Bag

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 Six

Grab Bag
47. Encourage group brainstorming. 49. Ask follow-up questions during meetings.
Eliminate bias and encourage others to share their One of the easiest ways to show you’re listening is
viewpoints by having people write down their thoughts to ask follow-up questions. Active listening builds
initially, then sharing out what they’ve written. This helps trust and respect between managers and employees,
others get their viewpoints out first versus the “loudest” so take notes and revisit topics that your employees
or most senior person in the room dominating. mention throughout your meetings.

50. Keep your calendar up to date especially when certain

Manager Hack
events require team members’ help.
Jeff Bieller Keeping an organized calendar helps you establish
VP of Enterprise Sales at Reflektive
yourself as a reliable manager. If your employees can
count on your calendar, they will waste less time trying
to track you down and they will be more confident
48. If you’re remote, call to check in on your about when you are available for meetings.
employees often.
“As a remote manager, I am constantly 51. Ask your team to always keep a running list topics
traveling, so when I’m at airports in between they want to talk to you about or an agenda.
flights I make a point to call and chat with all Not only will this make your meetings more efficient,
of my direct reports aside from our scheduled but as a manager you’re ensuring that your employees
1-on-1 time. These unstructured chats help feel heard and like they have a platform to bring up
my employees feel cared for and recognized.” ideas with the whole team.

Conclusion

© 2018 Reflektive Inc. 15

 Seven

Conclusion

We hope you enjoyed these 51 management hacks. About Reflektive

We threw a lot at you, but hopefully you can quickly Reflektive is a leader in providing innovative, real-time
begin to change your habits and behaviors to become a people management solutions for managers and
great manager. Not sure where to start? Try to identify their agile organizations. Founded in 2014, Reflektive
the category that you think you could start working on securely delivers Real-Time Feedback and Requests,
today, and get to work on trying those hacks! If your Goal Management, Performance Reviews, and Check-
performance reviews are approaching, try a few of the Ins applications in the cloud for more than 450 clients
hacks from Reviews and Performance and then gather worldwide including AAR, Blue Origin, Comcast, Dollar
feedback from your employees about whether your Shave Club, Healthgrades, Instacart, Wavemaker Global,
changes helped ease the process. Soon you’ll be a and Protective Life. Based in San Francisco, Reflektive
management superstar! secured funding from Andreessen Horowitz, Lightspeed
Venture Partners, and TPG Growth and was recognized
in Gartner’s 2017 Cool Vendors in Human Capital
Management report. Reflektive’s mission is to create the
first people management platform that helps employees
and managers work better together. Visit reflektive.com
to learn more and request a demo.

Follow us: @Reflektive

© 2018 Reflektive Inc. 16