The Best Way to Manage People is Don’t
Lead people, guide them, educate them, set examples for them, but don’t try to manage them. Establish priorities for people, schedule tasks and projects with them, review progress and achievements with them, help them set goals, but don’t try to manage them.
The best managers are not managers, they are facilitators. You know who they are. They are the owners and supervisors of highly successful companies with motivated employees and good reputations with customers, suppliers, and subcontractors. Their companies always seem to be on top of the competition with more jobs, better clients, and high profits. How do they do it? Let’s examine some of the methods that have proven to be the most effective in the office and in the field.
Be a coach I have always found that the most effective method for directing people is to assume the role of a coach. A good coach starts with the premise that his team members are professionals, that they have winning attitudes and the desire to perform to the best of their ability. So it should be with your employees or subcontractors. If they don’t have these qualities, then they shouldn’t be hired. As professionals, all they need is a good game plan and the flexibility to make adjustments in the how to accomplish the what in the most productive and effective way.
State your expectations and insist on commitment. The most important criteria for getting a high-quality product in the most profitable fashion is to make sure that the people responsible for providing it understand what is expected of them. They must be committed to the task. This commitment can only be determined by the initial contact between the supervisor and the employee, either in the selection process (in the case of a new hire), or during the project planning discussion in a pre-job conference.
Provide scheduled delivery times. By preparing a detailed schedule for starting and ending the project, you let employees or subcontractors know that the element of time is vitally important to the satisfactory completion of the task. You also confirm that they understand your expectations.
Set performance criteria. After you explain what the task is, the level of quality you expect, and the time allotted to perform the task, make it very clear what you will expect as acceptable performance. Don’t tell a professional how to do the job unless he or she specifically asks for recommendations or clarifications. Then, of course, provide the necessary information to help him or her understand.
Be communicative and request positive feedback. Reassuring your people that you believe they are professionals takes you halfway to a successful operation. By maintaining good communication with them, you will be kept sufficiently informed of their progress to establish that everything is running smoothly without having them feel that you are “checking up” on them or “second guessing” them. A good coach asks, “How are you doing, John?” instead of “What are you doing, John?”
Frequent but brief meetings (5 to 10 minutes) in the field and in the office can prove beneficial for both you and the employees, but only if both sides expect and provide honest, direct information and feedback on prior sessions. Each person must feel free to discuss any past or current decisions and the possible negative effects that those decisions may have on the overall progress or quality of the job.
A weekly meeting with the entire production and support group, lasting no longer than one hour, will help everyone better understand the whole picture of progress and profitability.
Apply mutual goal-setting techniques. Helping employees “go beyond themselves” is possibly the most rewarding thing that a supervisor can do for both himself and the employees. Nudging and guiding people to take bold steps can reap some very positive and unexpected results when the task is correctly understood. Each person is monitored for achievement of the goal and assisted in a limited way to help him or her reach the goals. Of course, the process is not without risk. This is where leadership takes form.
Show leadership. A good leader will allow his or her team members to make mistakes. This is how they grow. I don’t mean you should just ignore a mistake, but you allow it to happen without severe reprimand. The important thing to understand is that when the mistake is made, it should be calmly pointed out. Possible solutions should be discussed right then and there, allowing the employee to become part of the solution to the problem that he or she created. The task then ends on a “high note” rather than one of incompetence or dissatisfaction.
Give positive reinforcement. “Attaboys” can never be too frequent. The good coach is always giving positive strokes to the team members. Every job has its tedium. Some encouragement now and then helps make the task easier, and workers who feel valued take more pride in their work. A good leader passes all of the applause and recognition from senior management right on to the team members, but shields them from ridicule or embarrassment. A good leader prepares the team for the unexpected but is willing to take the flak for them if there is a foul-up. Mistakes will happen. They should be discussed and analyzed, in a calm and rational way, to see how they can be avoided in the future.
Be a positive role model. Naturally, setting good examples for employees when it comes to timeliness, order, and quality control in day-to-day tasks is essential to good leadership. You can hardly expect your employees to be on time if you are always late, or to be organized and quality conscious if you are not.
Keep a sense of perspective. A good sense of humor and the willingness to share some levity with your subordinates can keep an otherwise difficult problem or task in perspective. I don’t mean that you should be telling jokes all day. But the job needs to be dealt with on a level that allows some comic relief from extreme pressures. Otherwise, everyone may grow tense and lose sight of one of the goals—to enjoy what they are doing.
Imply “ownership.” Having pride in the product being delivered to the consumer is probably one of the most important elements of a well-directed team. Your employees and subcontractors must believe in what they are doing and be proud to say, “I helped build that.” A sense of “ownership” is a meaningful accomplishment for a professional; it transcends the monetary element of the overall goals for the individual.
Stress accountability. Accountability for actions and decisions is essential for employees to fully understand what is expected of them. They must have the sense of ownership in the end result or product in order to fully appreciate the importance of their efforts in the overall scheme of things. By making employees fully responsible for their actions, you help them to improve themselves. This, in turn, will improve their performance, increasing production effectiveness and quality control.
Encourage continuing education. The more educated and informed your people are, the better and more effective decisions they will make. The current availability of seminars, courses, classes, informative trade association magazines and newsletters can improve the level of employee performance and feeling of self-worth beyond measure. Your people should be encouraged and, if financially feasible, assisted in attending as many of these sessions as possible. Naturally, the most desirable educational opportunities should focus on a specific job-oriented topic related to the position they hold with your company. Professional recognition or status (such as COR or MIRM) can be both beneficial and rewarding to the recipients as well as the company. This type of educational programming improves relationships because of the level of understanding achieved in the process.
In summary, a successful manager manages a business but works with people in a free-flowing exchange of ideas, effort, and integrity. The manager provides positive reinforcement as often as possible. The manager who becomes mentor by example and deed to his crew, team, or group will reap personal satisfaction and monetary rewards through better quality products and more efficient systems, and drive the bottom line of the business to new heights.
© Bill Effinger, 1990
Global IT Operations Manager
5yVery well said.
IT Project Manager
5yVery True
Director at AO+O Properties Ltd
6yWell received
Owner/President of Green Collar Cleaning
9yAmy, no doubt why you're one of the best! ;)