It is needless to emphasise that a manager in any organisation or workplace plays a pivotal role. He is the middleman between employees and the employer. He should be neither pro-employee nor pro-employer. He should act impartially for both sides. But he is important both for the management and employees in the organisation. That is why it is rightly said that manager is a pillar of an organisation.

Manager is a person who manages people in the organisation or industry. In this respect, manager’s role is very difficult to play since people in the organisation have different attitudes and aptitudes. As such, manager has a special ability to deal with all types of people with great amount of sensitivity and responsibility. Of course, manager is also a human being like others in the organisation and he has got his own limitations too. But people in the organisation should realise the practical role of a manager and understand the situation before coming to a conclusion.

A manager should have some leadership qualities, which attracts the attention of all employees in the organisation. These qualities will stimulate the employees to follow the manager enthusiastically. So, a manager should have such qualities, which influence the employees to follow him with great interest and listen to him enthusiastically. To maintain his dignity and to retain his credibility, a manager has certain unique qualities, which will go a long way in influencing the employees in general and his subordinates in particular. 
Some of the qualities of an ideal manager are summarised below:

Since he is a middleman between the employees and the employer, a manager should take care of the interests of the employees. He should be in a position to distinguish between the honest and hard working employees with those of dishonest and lethargic ones. He should go all out to protect the interest of the dedicated employees. He should be courageous enough to take suitable action on those who violate the norms and rules & regulations of an organisation.

Manager should be a model to all employees in an organisation with regard to discipline and punctuality in attending to his duties. He should be the first man to enter the portals of an organisation and last man to leave the workplace. So, nobody needs to tell other employees in the organisation to follow the timings since the manager strictly follows the office timings.

He should be ready to sacrifice his time, energy and his comforts for the sake of employees as well as for the organisation.

Manager should have the inclination to hear the grievances of the employees     periodically, apart from extracting work from them. Employees’ welfare and well-being are equally important for the manager as that of the progress of an organisation.

Manager should not be a selfish person. He should share his accomplishments with all his subordinates. He should celebrate his success and achievements by sharing his happiness with all employees, whose efforts had contributed towards the success of an event. In the same way, he should protect the interests of the employees, if anybody does some mistake inadvertently or unknowingly.

He should have concern not only towards his employees but also towards employees’ family members. If employees were happy at home, naturally their contribution at work place would also be high. As such, manager should take some time off from his busy schedule to enalitiesquire into the problems being faced by employees at home.

A manager should never project a rosy picture unnecessarily before the employees just to finish a particular task. If he does not implement what he had said earlier, he would lose his credibility. In fact, a manager should introduce some motivational factors, which will boost employees’ morale to do more work voluntarily without any compulsion.

Manager should never favour any employee just because he is doing some favour to him either in an organisation or at his house. This type of attitude will tarnish the image of the manager himself.

Manager should also never utilise the services of the employees for his personal gains. In case he takes services of an employee, that particular person should be suitably compensated from his pocket and he should be treated equally with other employees in the organisation.

Manager should never cultivate the habit of character assassination in front of his subordinates. In the sense, a manager should not criticise about higher ups in front of his juniors and vice versa. This type of attitude will demoralise the dignity of a manager.

“Hiring a good person is more important than firing a bad one”. As such, manager should select the right kind of person to the right place, without any prejudices or bias. 

A manager should have an inclination to inculcate his skills and expertise to one of his subordinates, whom he thinks should be capable person to take up the mantle of a manager-ship in the event of his being absent from organisation for a long time for some unforeseen circumstances.

An organisation is also like a family and as such a manager should mix and mingle with all employees freely and frankly and exchange views in a cordially atmosphere. So that employees have great regard and respect towards the manager. 

Since manager is very important person in the work place, he should see that the image of the organisation or industry should be maintained at all cost, especially while dealing with other outside important customers and dignitaries. 

Manager should have sufficient courage to take decision on his own in the absence of other higher authorities in the organisation. He should not be a paper tiger or puppet in the hands of others and in fact he should be like a real tiger (courageous person) to take genuine decisions. He should also have courage to accept boldly whatever decisions he has taken. 

He should also have courage to accept if something goes wrong while discharging important duties. This rare quality will go a long way in boosting up his image amongst the employees in general and others higher authorities in particular. So, people in the organisation will rely on him and respect him for his reliability.
The writer is a teacher in National Institute of Advanced Studies, IISC and can be reached at

adevaraju@gmail.com