People Management - 10 Skills To Future Proof Yourself
In this fourth post of a ten part series on 10 Skills You Need To Future Proof Yourself, we’re focusing on ‘People Management’.
What Is ‘People Management’?
If you’ve ever run a business, it’s one of the hardest things to get right.
People are controlled by their emotions and often behave in unpredictable ways.
Therefore, managing them can be challenging and a good manager needs to lead, motivate, inspire and encourage.
Understanding what makes people ‘tick’ is essential to the success and happiness of any organisation. The problem is the gap between what we think is required to achieve these things and what is actually needed.
Daniel H. Pink wrote a great book called Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us in which he sets out three key drivers for motivated employees:
1. Autonomy - We like to feel that we have control over our domain. Team members will become less productive if you micromanage their efforts. Be clear about what they are in charge of and leave them to it.
2. Mastery - We want to see ourselves progressing in our work. Create the conditions for people to get better at their jobs and give them the tools to be the best they can be.
3. Purpose - People need to feel that they are contributing to something greater than themselves. As a leader, you need to be clear about what that goal or mission is from the start.
Ultimately, your job is to provide a strong foundation for each individual to excel in these three dimensions.
Why is it important?
Collectively we can achieve more than we can as individuals. The lone achiever is a myth.
Good leaders provide the right foundation for a happy and healthy workforce.
Poor leadership leads to poor performance.
Skilled people managers can help individuals reach their full potential.
How do I become better at it?
Here are 8 ways to improve your ability to manage people:
Have a clear vision that is consistently reinforced.
Be consistent in your behaviour and treat everyone equally.
Learn how to really listen to others. Take time to hear the concerns of all team members.
Communicate clearly and frequently. Don’t assume others know what’s going on.
Have a sense of humour. People will be more forgiving of your mistakes.
Be decisive. A leader must be confident in their choices even if they later revise them.
Ask for feedback. Learn to identify your strengths and weaknesses.
Take ultimate responsibility for when things go wrong.
If you’ve found this post helpful, you may enjoy our Building Superteams course which will teach you all about creating and managing high performance teams.
