How to Act More Like a Senior Manager

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Why Acting Like a Senior Manager May Be Important

Regardless of your industry (retail, software development, defense contracting, etc.), senior managers are an important – sometimes the most important – component of company success or failure. They must absorb decisions from executive management and translate these plans to other managers and non-managerial employees.

This is a tall order, and the best senior managers are treasured for their ability to accept and complete this responsibility effectively. But, how does one become a superior candidate for the position of senior manager? While you may at first believe it’s simply a component of age, politics, or personal relationships with executive managers, there are many more evaluation activities in most successful companies.

While using a “fake it 'til you make it” mantra may be an over-simplification, this often quoted positive attitude technique can be very important. Regardless of your age, tenure with your company, or educational background, the most effective way to become classified as a current or future senior manager is to act like one.

You are typically surrounded by your employees, peers, and superiors for around eight hours per day for five days of every seven. To paraphrase the fictional Hannibal Lecter in “Silence of the Lambs,” people “covet what they see every day.” This human trait is often present in the workplace. Consistently acting like a senior manager often consciously or subconsciously separates you from your peers, instilling a belief that you must be senior manager material.

If you believe some of your current peers have a distinct advantage over you, it may be time to consider a top employment search firm, like Kelly Services, to help you find a more attractive position. Conversely, should you feel that you’re ready for that elusive senior manager position, it is important that you lay the groundwork now by acting in a manner that successful upper managers usually adopt. Here are some generally accepted tips to accomplish this goal.

How to Behave Like a Senior Manager

Remember, behaving like a senior manager is more about “stage presence” than specific actions. Here are some generally accepted senior manager traits that you should adopt to be noticed.

• Manage change professionally and tastefully.  Instead of complaining, whining, or speaking negatively about operations, as many employees do, senior managers accept and work to successfully install changes, even when they don’t agree with the new procedures.
• Display a sense of direction and strong communication with peers and employees.  Become a valued resource to your staff, teams managed by others, and your peer group.
• Become an innovator and creative thinker.  Perception again becomes reality over time. To be perceived as innovative and creative, you need not re-invent the wheel. Often, simple suggestions for improvement and/or some modest outside-the-box thinking are all you need. Along with your personal efforts, try to inspire innovation and creativity in others.
• Be publicly supportive of company goals and objectives while advising staff to adopt individual personal goals.  Be a bit careful with this tip. You need to avoid the risk of appearing to be a company billboard or paid advertisement. Not only will your peers quickly tire of constant vocal support, executive management (the group you want to impress) will also grow weary of your transparency. But, public support of your company’s important objectives and tasteful encouragement of personal goals for your staff will enhance your image as a future senior manager.
• Show that you are a strategic thinker.  This is easier said than done if you’re not familiar with strategic techniques. Learn all you can about strategic planning and thinking as senior and executive managers often spend more effort on strategy than operations.
• Become a leader by example.  Possibly the most subtle, yet most important senior manager action is leadership by example. Just as the “rah-rah” approach is ignored by most professional athletes, leaders in business display their confidence, wisdom, and leadership by their actions, not mere words.
• Be a senior manager to yourself first.  Managing yourself can be challenging. However, to become a successful senior manager, you must learn to be confident, decisive, present strong arguments, vocalize persuasive suggestions, and become a superior communicator. Adopting words and actions to accentuate your senior manager persona displays your internal and external features that identify you as a future, more powerful influence in management.

As you can see, these universally accepted tips are a combination of mental focus and behavioral actions that, over time, create an image of a “senior manager in waiting.” While you can seldom create a senior manager position where none exists, by consistently acting like a senior executive, all who surround you will become ever more comfortable and supportive when that coveted opportunity exists. You might be pleasantly surprised with the support you receive from both expected and some surprising allies.