The crucial part of being successful at every job is knowing how to work with others irrespective of the role you are in. For team managers, knowing how to manage your people and understanding their ambitions is a key part of your success that ultimately contributes to the success of the company.
So what exactly do we mean by people management? Well, over the top, it sure means that it’s all about managing your people, elaborately, it means to develop, problem-solve for, organize, and grow the employee side of the business. The skills you should ideally have to be a good people manager is to be able to mediate a personality clash between team members, thus building an effective human resources system for the growth of the business.
Let’s move on to understand the importance of a people management team. Every company has a management team as you can’t expect your employees to design a company structure and work in order magically. In the same way, the maid notion behind people management is that you have managers because you can’t presume employees to manage their development, processes, and people problems by themselves.
You can build your people management skills quickly by making little changes in your mindset and your perspective on problems. The following tips can help you rethink the way you manage your team and can also assist in making amendments to your current processes to be an efficient and thriving manager.
1: Listening
People management starts with listening. Good listening means being attentive, making eye contact, taking notes, and waiting for the other person to finish before you begin to talk. Good listening is an essential trait for a people’s manager to possess. Code to listening includes keeping an open mind and not jumping to conclusions before or during conversations. Don’t build upon assumptions you have to let go of your preconceived notions and sit down to listen to them. Prepare for meetings, be it 1:1 or a group, never go in thinking you know all the answers.
2: Personal problems v/s organizational problems
Employees will have problems, and you have to help solve them. Workplace problems generally fall into two categories: personal and organizational. It may take the same shape when talking to a few other employees, but understanding the difference will save you from an unpleasant response.
Personal problems include:
- an employee’s workload
- an employee’s problem with their process etc.
These kinds of problems, when occurred with one (or a few) employees, can be rectified with your people management skills and zero reorganization is required.
But, organizational problems are rooted and can’t be solved by problem-solving one employee’s problem.
Organizational problems include:
- Teams unable to cope with the requirements of workload and are experiencing workflow problems frequently
- Resentment between team members because of overall poor performance
You have to step up to comprehend the organizational issues while still people-managing to keep employees’ heads above water until the problem is indeed fixed.
3: Employees Purpose
In order to communicate with employees and empathize with them, you have to understand what draws them to their work and the joy they derive from it; this essentially sums up their purpose The purpose is a massive part of what keeps people happy at work and what drives them to succeed and continuously push their limits to serve better. Knowing why an employee is attached to their role and they’re inspiration to be an individual contributor to the business helps you as a manager to understand how to help them succeed in a way that also benefits the company.
4: Treat praise and criticism alike
Employees will need a balance of both praise and criticism to be able to grow. You have to recognize when, where, and how to give praise. Make sure to reward employees regularly and in a timely fashion. Public recognition, special appreciation, and unique tokens (like the employee of the month awards or other recognition) are all people management tools that build trust and morale.
Criticism, like praise, should be timely. Rather than merely pointing to errors, good managers will give feedback by helping employees find solutions to work through their weaknesses. By assisting employees in setting new goals, you signal that you believe in their ability to improve. Be sure you end on a positive note!
5: Check-in when nothing is wrong
Managers have the power to stop putting their employees in a stressful situation, by simply checking in when nothing is wrong. Frequent meetings set an expectation of communication and provide a comfortable space for employees to turn to when things start getting rough.
In short – never leave things to chance!
Great managers are those who are proactive and attuned to the needs of their workplace. It’s your job to get your employees to find their perfect path to develop and reach their career goals.
