People
management is easy
Remember people are not tools or resources, never treat them as resources or objects! People are emotional beings. Humans are emotional creatures. So, it's important one should learn to deal or manage people.
If they connect with you emotionally you can get tremendously wonderful results. If you examine history, all great leaders connected with people through emotional backgrounds or ideologies that triggered them emotionally to work for them.
Unfortunately, bad managers and bad leaders’ percentage is more in today’s corporate, I feel sad to see these people, because they are not making any mistakes, either they get influenced by bad leadership qualities or they had very few opportunities to experience different or great leadership qualities in their career. They practiced and believed that, this is the only way to lead or manage the people.
Here is an example of a good Manager or Leader: they appreciate publicly and they criticize privately. For bad leaders or managers, they do exactly the opposite of it. Because they never studied or experienced anything about great leadership qualities and their working styles.
Leader or manager is the one, who should be specialised in bringing randomly directed people into one direction and get the things done!
Micro management, doubting, bugging make you a bad leader with no doubts! With tool and micromanagement, anyone can easily get the work done, they don’t need any of your people management skills. It’s a greatness of tool, not yours!
Why is Empathy very important?
Assume one of your team members gets sick and informs you as not working today, if you are a good leader you inform them to take care of their health. If you are a great leader you say take care of your health and offer your help to the person. If you are asking him to finish his work by knowing as he or she is sick, you are an example of a sick manager or leader! What type of care or concern do you have towards your team members? That’s the reason empathy plays a great role in leadership qualities.
Here is an example: One of my team member worked from the hospital to meet the project deadlines. His father was undergoing kidney operation and we had project deliverables which were dependent on him. By knowing his situation, I asked him to take care of his father. But he himself connected to work and delivered things from hospital. Simply thing will not happen. I have truly connected with him by true empathy and that made him to treat me as a brother and he just worked on the things from hospital and delivered great results.
If you are a bad leader, during your project delivery time or project deadlines healthy people may take sick leaves. If you are a great leader they connect and deliver things during their sick conditions too. Empathy in leadership is a very important quality.
Remember, difficult people are the results of some situations of their life. Understand and show your true empathy and love toward them. They will be the easiest people for you to work with. [If you are finding toxic natured or extremely difficult people? All your technics are not helping you to deal with them. In those cases; ignore, avoid, keep distance from them or complain to the related authorities]
80% and 20% rule of people management
When you have a team of 10 people, assume 2 or 3 team members are very difficult to deal with. In these conditions, as a leader or manager you should focus 80% of your time on those 2 or 3 team members to motivate them and bring them towards project objectives and goals. and remaining 20% time is enough for the other 7 or 8 team members, who are already motivated. Just a small inspiration is enough to get them in your direction or goals.
Wherever I was leading or managing teams, I used to get 2 or 3 challenging people. After having a great relationship, understanding and bonding with them, they become the most dedicated people in my team.
I love to share one of my Director’s [previous office] feedbacks about my skill in it. He said Vishnu one person in your team has been proved as most difficult and challenging by 3 team managers previously. But, I’m happy to see the same person is one of the best delivering and dedicated person under you! That is because I just played 80/20 rules. I was truly honest with him when winning his trust [Also Ref: How to Win Trust]and love.
Every person has different motivation
People management is not only art it has science too. We need to keep our vibrations and frequency in the right direction and right quantity/style of communication to connect with people. Else your drama or acting will not work. Honestly one should be truthful both inside and outside.
Like the above image, each one in your team may have different likes and dislikes, good and bad, they may be heading in different directions! Leader or manager is the one who should have a skill in understanding them, turning all the team members towards the objective and goals of the project.
Manager or Leader should be out of favouritism, gossiping and EGO, that is very important in people management.
Give what they want, to get what you want!
When you are hunting a fish try a hook without a worm attached to it. You will not be able to catch any fish. Now, put the worm in the hook and you have a possibility of getting a fish. This is very simple, give what they want, to get what you want. Every team member may have different expectations, try providing some comforts to them, they work for your comforts.
Examples of their comforts may be; Flexibility in office time, work from home option, training, tools, money, positions, respect, recognition, mentoring and so on. These comforts should be based on the need, scope and your authorities to do them [don’t make any false promises; you lose credibility]. Leaders should take care of their team’s health.
As a leader or manager, you should understand what are motivations and dreams of your team. Based on that, you have to give what they want; to get what you want.
Be the people Manager or Servant leader
Most of the surveys say; talented or great people leave the organization not because of money, not because of position or promotion, just because of self-respect or bad lead/manager!
Bullying, Bossing and driving may work but not yield any great results. People may work for you, till they get another job! Being people Manager or Servant leader has many benefits.
With no exaggeration I'm managing teams for more than 6+ years, I never felt or experienced any problem with team member's leave or vacation plans. My team members internally communicate, coordinate and load balance things by not creating an impact on any of my deliverables.
I was able to get on time delivery from the people who do not belong to my reporting structure or my divisions. Still they delivered things on-time with great respect and happiness.
With the quality of servant attitude, I didn't find much difficulty in getting the work delivered, even from the people who are located in different Geo locations. [Example: America, Canada, China, and India]
I'm very sure, this is the result of servant leadership qualities or people management qualities. If I tried bossing or driving with authority. I will be an example of bad leadership skills.
I have one good incident to share; my Director [previous office] called me one day. Vishnu, one of the other team member is begging me to work under you and they are literally crying! What have you done? I had no answer and was not sure of the quality of mine which influenced them. I do remember on a few occasions [previous and present office], my teammates or people who worked for me temporarily have shared similar feelings or feedback with me. They asked me to consider them to work under me, if there are any opportunities. It’s really great to receive such good feedback from teams; my sincere thanks to all good managers or leaders and books I studied. I also thank my bad leaders or managers; because of them I have learnt, how not to be and what not to do!
I love to remember this quote: “If you are a true Manager or Leader? You should generate loyalty and a kind of leadership reputation that will have the best talent standing in line to work for you?”
One more important thing in people management, that is “dealing with different personalities”, I will try to bring that in my future blog…
