Managers who want to meet the needs of their organizations need to meet the needs of their employees.

What’s the difference between an extraordinary manager and an ordinary one?

An extraordinary manager gets extraordinary results from ordinary people, according to management consultant Leonard Sandler, author of Becoming an Extraordinary Manager: The 5 Essentials for Success.

Most employees are just that— ordinary people, Sandler insists. “But some managers are able to perform miracles with these folks, others aren’t,” he says. “The difference is usually not in the people, but in the manager. Managers have a tremendous impact on the results of their staff.”

Even so, most great managers aren’t born that way.

“It’s a myth that you have to be charismatic, or give great speeches,” says Sandler. “There’s absolutely no question that anybody can be an extraordinary manager.”

To start improving your skills, he suggests you:

Treat employees like customers. Even before your first meeting with a new group of employees, do the kind of research on them that you’d do on customers: Who are they? What are their traits? What’s important to them?

The more interest you show in employees, the better they’ll respond.

Most managers come in the first day of work and brag about themselves, their expectations. But wouldn’t it be great if the first day on your job you started with, “Sally, I heard you’re the one who implemented the Alpha Project”?

Learn what really motivates. “So many managers don’t understand the concept of motivation. It’s not something you do to employees, it’s about giving them what they need,” says Sandler.

However, every individual is different. For example, one person may really want to travel, while another may hate it. To learn about those differences, ask.

“Don’t make unwarranted assumptions. The best assumption you can make about people is that they’re different from you,” Sandler says. Ask what challenges they’d like to take on, or what they’d like to do that they’re not doing now.”

Make people feel valued. “As a consultant, I’ll go into companies these days and look into their personnel files,” he says. “It’s not unusual for people to have been an outstanding performer for five or six years, and their files are empty. I’ll ask, ‘Where are all the performance reviews, the letters of acknowledgement, the accolades, the thank-yous?’ Imagine how the employees feel knowing their files are empty and they’re taken for granted, like they’re part of the furniture.”

Make priorities visible. “It’s not unusual for employees not to know the goals of other employees or even the goals of their manager,” Sandler says. “As a result, they don’t know where they stand at any given moment.”

Then, if they do get a performance review where the manager tells them how they’re doing—they’re often shocked by what they hear.

The manager wonders why the employee was surprised, but the fact is that often, employees don’t know what their priorities should be.

Document performance. Get in the habit of documenting criticism and praise.

“Why should a busy manager bother with these steps?” he asks.

“If you meet the needs of your organization and also meet the needs of your people, then you’re a manager who’s doing an extraordinary job.”

Polly Turner spoke with Leonard Sandler, president of Westford, Mass.-based Sandler Associates and author of Becoming an Extraordinary Manager: The 5 Essentials for Success. Amacom, 2007, $17.95.

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