A few years back, I was talking with the HR director at a large UK high street bank. A manager there had a team engagement score of 70%, way above any other team. So they went to find out what this manager was doing that everyone else wasn’t.
Truth be told, they were expecting something groundbreaking. A revolutionary management technique. A sophisticated engagement initiative. Some breakthrough insight that explained it all.
Instead, they got an answer that was almost disappointingly ordinary:
“Honestly? Nothing particularly special. I just make sure I get the basics right, consistently.”
That was it. Just a handful of simple habits, repeated week after week. Clear objectives. A weekly team meeting. A short message at the start of the week setting priorities. Another at the end recognising good work and reflecting on progress. Regular one-to-ones that happened because they were scheduled, not because something had gone wrong.
And yet these ordinary habits created a far from ordinary experience for the people in the team.
Hearing this reinforced a belief I’ve held for a long time: great management isn’t usually complicated, it’s just remarkably consistent.
We tend to celebrate the visible moments. The inspiring speech. The charismatic leader. The person who walks into the room and lifts everyone’s energy. But that’s not how people experience their manager. They experience them in the Tuesday morning one-to-one. The Friday afternoon follow-up. The way priorities are explained. Whether promises are kept. Whether good work gets noticed. Whether someone makes time for them when it matters.
Trust isn’t built in the big moments. It’s built in the moments that don’t feel important at the time.
In my experience, most managers don’t have a knowledge problem. Ask them what good management looks like and they’ll usually give you a pretty solid answer.
But management isn’t usually a knowledge problem. Most managers already know what to do. Their team just wishes they’d do it more often.
Work gets busy. One-to-ones slip. Team meetings get cancelled. Feedback gets pushed to the appraisal because “we’ll talk about it then”. Recognition becomes another thing to do when things calm down.
Individually, none of those decisions feels particularly important. Collectively, they’re how your team experiences you as a manager. Because consistency sends messages, for better or worse.
When you regularly check in with people, you communicate that they matter. When you follow through on what you said you’d do, you build trust. When expectations are clear, people spend less time guessing and more time doing good work.
None of this is glamorous. It probably won’t earn you a standing ovation at the next annual conference. But it might make you something much more valuable.
Reliable. Easy to work for. Trusted.
If you’re looking to improve as a manager, don’t start by asking, “What’s the next technique I need to learn?”
Instead, start by asking: How consistently do my one-to-ones happen? How clear are my team on what’s important this week? How often do I recognise good work? Do I keep the promises I make?
Great management rarely comes from doing extraordinary things once. It comes from doing ordinary things, extraordinarily well, over and over again.
Years from now, very few people will remember your presentation, your strategy or your away day. They will remember what it felt like to work for you.
Gareth Russell is an accredited executive coach, master facilitator and Association for Coaching group mentor