HOW TO MANAGE PEOPLE

People Management is the process of Overseeing and Organising , Training, Problem Solving , Development , Growing , Motivation, Directing , and day to day management of employees , in order to optimise work place and productivity and promote professional growth .

Normally  Managers , Work place leaders , Team leaders and Departmental Heads  are responsible for the people management in their departments to oversee workflow and boost employee performance every day , and their skills range from being able to mediate a personality conflict among team members to building an effective performance management strategy for an organisation .

USE OF PEOPLE MANAGEMENT

Managing Interpersonal Conflicts – As a people manager you need to handle interpersonal conflicts , the conflicts may be in between you and the other person or in between two people in your team . A good people manager always help the two people to resolve the conflict in  productive  manner .

Leading Employee Training – You need to provide expert and special training according to the need of employees . First you need to find and access the need of your employee according to the demand of specific job and specific assignment .

Managing Deadlines – As a supervisor or people manager you have to manage deadlines as per your client requirement in a professional way , you have to make sure that your team meets the deadline all the time and do not lag behind the time .

Building Company Culture – This is the responsibility of team leader or manager to build the company culture more strong and credible .It generally happens that the people give feed back to the team members of the specific task . In this  situation , you as people manager should take the feedback from your team members timely as suits you , This will not only motivate your team members but also you will be able to manage your team and project or task more efficiently and effectively .

Characteristics of People Manager

Empowering Employees

You always have to manage to empower your employees by giving them authority to take their own decision . Knowing how to motivate and empower employees is vital for manager,  supervisors , leaders of all levels. Employee  empowerment not only leads to higher job satisfaction, but improved work performance and a greater commitment to the organisation.

It is normally found that leaders who empower their employees are more likely to have team members who are perceived by their peers as highly creative and helpful.

Whether you’re a seasoned or aspiring leader, there are several benefits to understanding how you can enable your colleagues to reach their full potential.  You can empower your employees and cultivate a winning team in following ways—

Building a Trust Culture

Trust is an essential component of any successful organisation.  The work place with high-trust cultures generate increased levels of employee engagement, innovation, and satisfaction.

To build a culture of trust, it’s important to lead  and keep your promises, tell the truth, and encourage open dialogue and debate to solve conflicts. Doing so can inspire your employees to follow the trust building culture.

Deliver Honest Feedback

One of your key responsibilities as a leader is enabling your team members to do their best work. To make your employees feel empowered in their roles, deliver honest feedback  on their performance.

Be clear and specific when providing feedback, and make it a point to highlight your colleagues’ strengths to boost motivation. More employees whose managers focused on strengths were fully engaged at work, compared to less workers who received feedback mainly on their weaknesses.

Show Sympathy

Sympathy is among the most important traits a leader can possess. According to a survey  sympathy is directly linked to a organisation's financial performance, and most of the employees say they're more likely to stay with an sympathetic employer. What’s more, sympathy has been rated as the top leadership skill . By taking your employees perspectives into account, you can become a more emotionally  intelligent  leader  and make your team members feel like they’re understood and valued.

Keep Strong Communication Open

Communication is a critical soft skill  for all professionals. To succeed as a leader, you need to not only be a strong communicator, but a great listener.

You can leverage your communication skills to drive employee empowerment by fostering open dialogue. Study shows   that workers whose managers are approachable are more engaged which, in turn, cultivates a team environment wherein members are comfortable sharing ideas and challenging one another.

Be Purpose-Driven

 As a people manager your aim and goal should be clear , otherwise your team members may be in state of confusion ,  note there are few key needs , that leaders should address when mobilising employees:

Orienting the team’s Belief —Both about themselves and the challenges and opportunities they face.

Equipping --  Team members with the practices and habits to take on challenges and opportunities and achieve the desired end goal

Igniting -- Employee’s emotions so the drive to learn and deliver comes from within

rallying your team around a purpose is an effective way of instilling a commitment to        organisational goals and making your employees feel like the work they do matters.

As Henderson said.  “If you’re able to link your purpose to the strategic vision of the company in a way that really gets people aligned and facing in the right direction, then you have the possibility of outperforming your competitors.”

Delegate Responsibilities and Tasks

Part of being an effective leader is understanding you can’t do it all. You need to trust your team and be willing to hand off important tasks and responsibilities to efficiently execute initiatives and projects.

When assigning to-dos, it’s critical to start with your reasons for doing so . Give your employees an idea of where their work fits into larger organisational initiatives, and highlight what’s unique about the opportunity on the table. Providing this context can boost their enthusiasm for the task at hand and increase the likelihood that the job gets done well and on time.

Support Growth Opportunities

Learning and growth opportunities fuel employee empowerment.  Employees who spend more time in learning at work report that --

They are less likely to be stressed .

They are more likely to feel productive and successful .

They are more ready to take on additional responsibilities .

They are more likely to feel confident and happy .

 

To help your team members reap these benefits,  always encourage them to seek out ways to professionally develop.  No matter which avenues your employees take to further their knowledge, your support of their growth can lead them to feel more competent and valued in their roles.

UNLEASHING YOUR TEAM’S POTENTIAL

Empowering employees is an imperative task for new and aspiring leaders alike. As you follow your career journey, consider how you can adapt your managerial and leadership style to unlock team member’s potential and overcome organisational challenges.

Active Listening

Employees always like to share the pros and cons of particular task with their seniors , Team leaders , Manager . As manager you have to listen them actively . Employees or your team members should feel that you are not ignoring or taking them lightly . Active listening is the foundation of successful communication. It can promote a feeling of being valued or heard or create a feeling of trust, strengthening working relationships and making it a valuable workplace skill .

Actually it’s an art to listen your subordinate or team members , According to James Cash Penney The art of effective listening is essential to clear communication, and clear communication is necessary for management success.

How to be a good active listener

Learning practical listening skills is hard nut to crack , this skill is not very easy to leans Like any other skill, one must sincerely understand the dos and don’ts of listening and act accordingly to become a better listener. Here few steps to follow to be a good listener –

Attitude

You must have heard that sometime negative attitude is the biggest enemy of human . when someone shows attitude it creates a lot of misunderstanding and confusion among team members .

According to Bernard M. Baruch – ‘Most of the successful people I have known are the one who do more listening than talking’ .

Attitude is a feeling of thought and emotion that comes from understanding that we must be respectful towards what others say about a fact or state. Also,  understanding that we all can learn something new from others even if we have strong beliefs or feelings prior to the topic. When we respect everyone, we tend to look beyond our preconceived notions and become better listeners.

Attention

To be a good listener, we must have good attention. But it is easier said than done. Many of us have less attention span, or we tend to distract away easily. If that is the case, you must practice some exercise to help you hold your attention to the speaker. Mind games or puzzles that keep your attention are great to start with. Meditation and Yoga is one more important tool that helps us retain our focus and full attention.

 Adjustment

Adjustment in listening is nothing but keeping an open mind. To follow what the speaker conveys, even if that is difficult for you to grasp or hold no meaning. Often we listen to great leaders speaking about business or life in general. If the topic of discussion steers in a monotonous direction, we tend not to adjust but daydream. When we keep an open mind and ready to invest our time, we adapt to the situation and, in the end, become a better listener.

Conflict resolution

Working team is a group of people , everyone has its own views , thinking , attitude , way of working , opinion , and any two people are not same . So conflict is integral part of working . during working it is very normal and it arises frequently .

As a team leader or manager , you must have the quality to resolve conflict between two team members or may be in between you and other member in very positive and constructive manner.  Although it's one of the most valuable skills you can have in today's professional world, conflict management is something than many individuals shy away from. Conflict is inherently uncomfortable for most of people, in both personal and professional contexts, but learning to effectively handle conflicts in a productive, healthy way is essential - especially at work.

While conflict resolution is a skill that is best built through years of practice and experience, starting out with some of the most common and effective conflict resolution strategies will give you a strong foundation to work from for years to come.

Conflict Resolution Strategies

Never  Avoid Conflict

Identify the Issue

Call Involved Parties Together

Identify a Solution

Continue to Monitor and Follow Up on the Conflict

.

Flexibility

Being a people manager you should be able to quickly adapt to new circumstances as they arise.  A team leader or manager who is flexible can change their plans to navigate or overcome unanticipated obstacles in a very convenient manner.  Flexibility is not only about surviving and thriving in new situations.  Adaptable leaders can also implement new behaviours into old, existing situations. This allows them to express creativity in their work and find new ways to solve problems. Flexibility is the willingness to try new behaviours, regardless of whether one is currently undergoing a time of change in their organisation .

How to Improve Your Flexibility

Appreciate the versatility of flexibility: The ways in which a leader can be flexible are infinite. Different leaders will face different challenges, and each leader will need to recognise and seize opportunities for flexibility within their own sphere of influence and action.  leaders need flexibility when interacting with individuals from different fields, industries, or cultures.  Many employees and team members are hesitant or uncomfortable with change, but an effective leader needs to be able to recognise, accept, and welcome change to stay at the top of their working .

Foster flexible employees: Leaders aren’t the only individuals who need to be flexible for a company to be successful. Encouraging employees to be more flexible in their own work will help develop their flexibility skills. Approaches  feel a greater sense of ownership.

Lean on your other leadership characteristics: The actual expression, implementation, and success of flexibility will depend on your ability to use your other leadership characteristics in new situations.

 Patience

As people manager you have to deal with multiple team and multiple people around you. So in each and every situation you should be patience enough to listen to everyone and   YET  handle them in positive and constructive manner.

Remember Patience is not a simple virtue to come by; it’s a skill that must be diligently and consciously worked on every day. However, learning to be patient is well worth the challenge as it not only benefits you in everyday life, but significantly in the workplace as well. .

When you find yourself beginning to feel short fused and impatient when dealing with certain work situations, use it as an opportunity to develop patience. Take a step back and admire the situation from the outside looking in. The workplace is intense these days and organisations are constantly on the mend to find the best way to operate effectively.  A great leader has great patience. The first step in creating a great organisation is creating a culture which starts from the bottom of the triangle: the employees.  While managing the awkward and impatient situation you might follow these steps --

See through the eyes of others.

.Listen and question with a positive attitude.

Don’t run away from personal responsibility.

Seek perspective from a trusted resource.

Remain unbiased.

Trust Worthy.

You as a people manager have to be Trust Worthy . You have to be somebody , people can rely on . Anyone wants to share one’s  thought, idea, strategy etc with you. People manager needs to be their best  friend , Adviser , Mentor not just a Team leader or Manager.

According to David DeSteno – “Trust is an Evolving thing that ebbs and flows “  Employees are more likely to follow through on goals set by a manager they trust and to be more forthcoming about the challenges they see on their level.

Further as Jim Dougherty says that -- “Managers will never learn the truth about a company unless they have employees’ trust,”

That’s why it’s so critical for managers to constantly reinforce their trustworthiness.

Here few ways that leaders at all levels can build trust in the workplace by aligning action with words --

Extend Sympathy to others.

Be honest and supportive.

Be transparent.

Be quiet sometimes.

Model the behaviour you seek.

Build in accountability.

Demonstrate appreciation.

Be consistent .

Solicit feedback and take action on suggestions .

Recognise that building trust takes hard work.

 

According to Paul Hawken – “Good Management is the art of making problems so interesting and their solutions so constructive that everyone want to get to work and deal with them.”

Anytime you have strong people management in any organisation , employees working there  feel so motivated and encouraged to work and solve the problems at their own and You as people manager always help them and stand with them.

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Disclaimer –

This article / blog is for information purpose only, but by no means it is a complete and exhaustive explanation on the whole topic, nor it’s intended as a substitute for therapy.