Manage People More Effectively
Are you in charge of a team and want to be more effective? This article will give you some tips on how to manage people most effectively.
Steps
- Understand team members' goals and help them to succeed in achieving their goals. A Manager should be well aware of a team member’s goals and strive hard to ensure that they succeed in achieving goals. In my experience I have learn that all individual have goals and that inspires them to work hard. The goals can be anything like promotion, Car, House, Technical knowledge improvement, etc. Also if a team member is looking forward to move to a different team in your organization do not find any reason to stop the team member. He would do no good staying back. Example: - Carlos goal is to develop himself in windows and SQL domain; you have a limited work in your team. May be you can share some documents, videos, training that will help him develop himself in free time.
- Set tough goals at the beginning of the year. All the modern organizations set goals at the beginning of the year and expect each team to work hard on achieving them throughout the year. This is the biggest opportunity to make the best of the talented bunch of people in your team. Lay down clear and concise goals in alignment with your organization and work hard with team to achieve them. A team without goals is like a car without steering. Often goals are used as an important steering factor to keep team focused at work. A good thought on Goals,” Set your sights high, the higher the better”.
- Keep the team busy. The biggest challenge for a manager is optimum utilization of resources. A manager should ensure that resources are kept busy at work. As we all are aware,” An empty mind is devil’s workshop”. In my views this is toughest job however not impossible. If you have limited work you involve team members in Knowledge base creations, training, tasks etc. Keeping the team members will ensure that they all are focused at work and not indulging in any wrong activities.
- Monitor work and quality audit. Implement measures to perform a random monitoring of work done by team members as well implement quality audit measure for the team. This will ensure that the team will always be giving their best on deliverables. Also spare some time in sharing the feedback with the team members. This will result in to overall development of team and quality deliverables at workplace.
- Maintain ethics, principles and discipline at work. Although it’s a modern civilization, set very high standards for work ethics, principles and discipline at work. Today in this competitive world people go at any extent to stay on the top. Always share the importance of ethics, principles and discipline at work. Have severe punishments for team members for cheating at work. The most important part is discipline where you the manager play the most important role.
- Lead by example. As said by someone,” A leader leads by example, whether he intends to or not”. The team members look at you and follow you. It’s very important that you as a manager set good example for team members in terms of work, professionalism, ethics, principle and discipline. The team will follow you and do what you do. Stretching for a critical deliverables and sitting down with team members for moral support will be a good example.
- Recognize awesome performance. As mentioned by A Cohen, ”Appreciation is the highest form of prayer, for it acknowledges the presence of good wherever you shine the light of your thankful thoughts.” As a manager it’s very important to recognize good deeds of team members. This will inspire and motivate them to achieve more and contribute more. Also imagine you took an initiative for team and it resulted in success however your superior doesn’t recognize or appreciate it. This is exactly the feeling that team members get when they are not recognize. As a leader you have authority and power to recognize team members however do that with your best judgment and experience.
- Have monthly PMRP discussions. As mentioned above, set goals for team members and calculate their achievements on those goals on monthly basis. This will made the team members realize the areas that they need to improve. This will certainly produce tremendous results for the organization. Also will set the right expectation among team members about what rating they should expect at the end of the year. I have implemented this and produce tremendous results for my organization.
- Have punishments. As said by Saint Augustine,” Punishment is justice for the unjust”. As a human being we don’t really like to punish anybody. Always remember in life we are playing different roles example: Manager, teacher, guide, etc. We need to ensure that we do justified things for the role. If at all after number of requests and warnings we do not see improvement in a team member, he/she deserves to be punished. Collect all the data about the team member’s deed and punished the team members for the wrong deed. Typically now the managers have to report the incidents to the Human Resource department for appropriate action.
- Make optimum utilization of resources. As a manager you got to ensure that you used all your resources optimally. Under utilization and over staffing of resources leads to huge financial loss for the company. In today’s competitive world we have to be very diligent about the costs to the company and avoid all the bottle necks leading to high costs.
- Have outings with team members. An outing with team members is a perfect opportunity to break the barrier with them. It is also an important listening forum to understand what team members are conversing about. Team members might get a little cozy about what other company’s have to offer and what are good aspects of other organizations during such outings. Make a point to listen to these points and implement them in your organization if within your capacity. Outing with team members once in a month or may be quarter is refreshing break from work and a great good together of professional friends.
- Be energetic and positive. Begin your day full of enthusiasm and positive energy. As said by Robert Collier,” There is little difference in people, but that little difference makes a big difference. That little difference is attitude. The big difference is whether it is positive or negative”. Be very positive in all the task you complete and use the positive energy ins generating great results for the team.
- Know how to deal with politics from internal competitors. Today business is managed by series of leaders and each team across organization has a leader for effective management. Naturally to grow some mediocre kinds will attempt to play foul games and stop your growth. In such situations do not lose focus. Just stay focused on your task and complete the tasks exceptionally well. The higher management needs results and put your focus on generating results. This way they would look into getting you down while you will keep generating results.
- Know how to understand problems and how to resolve them. When team members are approaching you with a problem take some time to understand the root cause of the problem. Understand the fact that they are reaching you as they trust you and your abilities to solve their problems. Act as a very powerful problem solver and guide the team members effectively. Use the treasure of your experience to solve the problems. You may also relate some problems with your mentors for effective solutions.
- Know that time management is the key. Utilize your time very well. Time management is the key to success for effective management personal. Plan your day effectively and implement all your plans for the day. If you have spare time indulge in learning something new and develop yourself. Spend majority of your time in planning and preparing your team for future.
- Love your work. Once a manager, you're always a manager. Remember it doesn’t take an MBA from MIT to manage people effectively, what it really takes is a passionate spirit who loves the job. Be passionate and love your job. As said by Steve Jobs,” The only way to do great work is to love what you do”. In my experience I observed that my love and passion for my work has really helped me grow professionally as well as generated tremendous results for my organization.
- Work 1:1 with team members: Having monthly 1:1 with team members really helps and makes your job easier. This is a time where you can share the right feedback to the team members. Also its great opportunity for team members to share their concerns with you. There are some items which you cannot share with team members in front of others so 1:1 can be used to discuss these items. As a manager utilize this opportunity to provide constructive feedback to team members and develop them.
- Always be kind, humble and generous. The more you grow be humble and generous to people. You have been identified to be a leader as you have been a great performer and you have some great qualities in terms of people management. Be kind to your team members. Be very humble to them in attending issues. Put yourself in their shoes and realize what they are going through. Forgive honest mistakes. Be open to receive feedback and develop yourself. Listen to people around you and do what your soul says is right.
- Remember that there’s a whole bright world waiting for you to do wonders, go for it!
