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“The best boss I ever had.” That’s a phrase most of us have said or heard at some point, but what does it mean? What sets the great boss apart from the average boss?

In my research, beginning with a survey of 80,000 managers conducted by Gallup and in-depth studies of top performers, I’ve found that while there are as many styles of management as there are managers, there is one quality that sets truly great managers apart: they discover what is unique about each person and then capitalise on it.

There are three things you must know about someone to manage them well:

1. Make the most of strengths.
It takes time and effort to gain a full appreciation of an employee’s strengths and weaknesses. The great manager spends time out of the corner office, walking around, watching people’s reactions to events, listening and taking mental notes. There’s no substitute for this kind of observation, but you can gain a lot of information about a person by asking a few simple questions. To identify strengths ask: “What was the best day at work you’ve had in the past three months?” Find out what they were doing and why it was so enjoyable. To identify weaknesses invert the question. Use this knowledge to focus on strengths and reinforce self-assurance. Overcome weaknesses by boosting self-assurance, training and partnering with colleagues.

2. Trigger good performance.
A person’s strengths aren’t always on display. Sometimes they require precise triggering to turn them on. Squeeze the right trigger and a person will push harder and persevere in the face of resistance. Squeeze the wrong one, and the person may shut down. One person’s trigger might be tied to the time of day, another’s tied to time with you, another might be the opposite – independence. The most powerful trigger is recognition, not money.

Most managers are aware that employees respond well to recognition. Great managers refine and extend this insight. They realise that each employee plays to a slightly different audience. To excel as a manager you must be able to match the employee to the audience he values most, ie, if an employee’s audience is his peers, praise him publicly.

3. Tailor to learning styles.
Three learning styles predominate. First, there’s analysing. The best way to teach an analyser is to give her ample time in the classroom. Role-play with her. Do postmortem exercises with her. Always allow her time to prepare. The analyser hates mistakes. The second learning style is doing. While the most powerful learning moments for the analyser occur prior to the performance, the doer’s most powerful moments occur during the performance. Trial and error are integral to this learning process. Finally, there’s watching. Watchers learn from seeing a whole performance.

A manager’s most precious resource is time and great managers know that the most effective way to invest their time is to identify exactly how each employee is different and then to figure out how best to incorporate those idiosyncrasies into the overall plan. To excel at managing others, you must bring that insight to your actions and interactions.

This article is an extract taken from What Great Managers Do by Marcus Buckingham published in the Harvard Business Review

Times Online is the UK media partner for Harvard Business Review’s (HBR) new Fuel Your Performance initiative. Next week our collaboration continues and we look at eight ways to build collaborative teams.

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