Managers have a huge role to play in the success of any business. Whether you are a one-man-band lookinbg to bring in a little help to start to grow your business, or a leader in a major organization, good, solid people management skills are the only ways to get the best from your people.
Here are a few to help you on your way:-
1. Develop Others Effectively
Your people are your major asset, so it makes sense to treat them with the respect they deserve.
Great people management is all about watching out for any value-creating opportunity that helps you do your job, as well as helping keen, interested and ‘developable’ people in your team stretch and learn, on the job.
This is a true win-win, with you getting much more work done – this time by others – whilst stretching them as well to new skills they can bankl for the future too
2. Be Very Accountable
Respect for any manager has to be earned. It comes from people seeing your integrity on show with every breath you take.
So, when the chips are down, it’s up to you to use your people management skills on yourself as well as with others and accept that the business success or otherwise, is down to you, and you alone.
No excuses. Nobody else. You.
Your people will only learn that there are no excuses in business – only indivuduals who stand up to be accountable, win or lose.
3. Set The Standards First
It’s a funny thing, your people need you to tell them the core fundamentals of ‘how’ you will allow your business to be run – and then they want you to let them get on with finding the best way how to do it!
In fact there is no people management conflict here. The standards you set for your people enables them to get all creative with their solutions – once they have the criteria of what’s allowed and what isn’t. The standards you create with them in the ‘way’ your business wilol run is vital.
A seemingly restrictive environment frees up the thinking and enables incredible success. Sometimes there are rules – then inside those rules there are no rules.
4. Be Very Determined
It’s important to stick with your guns when results and achievements are concerned. You have greated the standards which are immovable, and now it’s time to keep your eye on the ball. On a very clear target.
Sometimes when things aren’t going as well, it could be tempting to compromise with your people management skills, on both the standards of your business, as well as the goals and targets.
Yet this just leads to sloppy discipline and an acceptance that you aren’t for real. Then you bend under pressure – and even give way.
So now is the time to be very determined.
5. Be Trustworthy
If you want the best from your people management skills, you have to earn the trust of every one of your people. Trust can take years to build and but a few moments to destroy.
Trust is about:-
- Keeping your promises – or not making them
- Telling the truth
- Appreciating others needs and circumstances
- Sticking with what you say you will
- Listening to others and saying less
- Sharing information
- Having no favorites
- Being consistent
- Telling people to their face, not to others behind their backs
- Being sensitised so that your intuition works
- Assuming nothing
- Saying sorry when you’ve been in the wrong
People management is quite a challenge for many, yet if you get a few ground rules just right, you will be able to leverage the value of each and every one of your people without doing anything to their disadvantage – in fact they will be positive winners as well. Not to mention a very successful business indeed.
What more could any manager ask for?
By: Martin Haworth
Posts Tagged ‘Management Skills’
People Management – 5 Simple Steps To People Management Success
April 21st, 2010Management Performance
April 7th, 2010
It’s important to monitor your management performance, keeping on top of this can really increase your productivity and create an excellent working atmosphere. Management performance needs to be strong, and by consistently knowing how your team is doing will ensure that everything is going to be right on schedule.
You want to make sure that your team leader needs to fit into specific guidelines. You want them to have excellent networking skills, good control of emotion, and excellent people management skills. It’s crucial that they are able to create a good working environment. If you select someone with these important attributes then there is an excellent chance that everything will run smoothly. But this doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t constantly monitor their performance. It’s hard to find good employees, and there are other alternatives to paying a high salary to someone when you can purchase a single piece of software that can complete this job for free. So implementing a good management performance software into your company is an excellent way to know who is working to the best of their ability and who is not.
Here are some things that a good management performance software can do for you. And the best part of it is that you can monitor everything right from the comfort of your own desk.
It will help you to delegate certain employees to designated tasks. And it will give them certain requirements, and as they complete each stage they will log check it within the software and you will easily be able to check on them by checking the program. This is a great way to track their progress and quickly see who is not working up to their requirements.
This simple to use piece of software is one of those you things that you thought you could live without, that is until you use it. Project managing software is a very valuable asset to any company. It can save you money in many different ways. And if you understand the value of great management performance then you will understand the value of using this type of software in your business no matter what type of business that you may have.
I highly suggest that you begin learning more about how to improve your management performance and you will discover that this is going to be the answer to your prays.
By: Paul Abbey
Essential Management Skills
March 30th, 2010
Management done well looks easy. Some people seem to be naturals when it comes to managing people, process or money while for others it just seems to be one big struggle. If you are to succeed in management there are certain skills that you need to master, including:
Prioritising
As soon as you become a manager, multi-tasking becomes the norm. You no longer just have to think about one thing, you now need to be able to prioritise your own and usually set priorities for others. Key to this is knowing what your key deliverables are and ensuring that these are given appropriate priority.
Delegating
Management is all about getting results through others. Sadly while many managers recognise this, many struggle to delegate effectively. There are a whole host of reasons why people don’t delegate. They worry that the other person will not do as good a job. They worry that the other person will do the job better. Often they will hold on to things because they like do them. Another common reason is that it will be quicker to do it yourself. The reality is that if you don’t choose to delegate, your chances of success as a manager greatly diminish.
Motivating
Motivating is all about moving people towards achievement of an outcome. It could be a faster close down of a monthly reporting cycle, changing the way a process works or team working. Part of your skill set as a manager is to understand what motivates those that you manage. Everyone is different. Some people want reward in financial terms, others want appreciation or recognition or a happy work environment. If you are to excel as a manager, you need to keep people motivated.
Hiring or Recruiting
So much of your success depends on the results you achieve through others. It is therefore key that you get the right people, with the right skills and the right attributes on your team. Yet many managers are at best competent when it comes to recruiting and selecting. If this is an area where you struggle, invest in acquiring the skills to be a successful recruiter.
Decision Making
People will look to you as the manager to take decisions. An indecisive manager frustrates staff and leaves them feeling lost. People may not always like the decisions that you take but will respect you more if you learn to take a decision.
Problem solving
Your job as a manager is to get results. As you try to get results, obstacles will arise and part of your job is to find or help others find solutions to problems. Part of the challenge is being systematic and making sure that you are tackling the real problem rather than something surface level. Diagnosis of the problem is key before you start thinking about solutions.
Management is challenging but is also rewarding. You can become an even better manager by focusing on developing the essential skills above. So what’s your next step?
By: Duncan Brodie
