People management stems from HR and reaches leaders and employees across an organization. Effective people management can improve morale and employee engagement, reduce turnover, and enhance communication throughout teams.
Let's take a closer look at what people management is, how it supports teams, and the skills that make up effective people management.
What is people management?
People managers handle all people-related tasks involving new talent, employee engagement, and career development. They are often responsible for the onboarding and training processes of new employees.
After onboarding, people managers then support and work alongside managers to provide feedback and mentorship to employees. This collaborative approach to people management helps employees reach their goals and work cohesively with the team.
Falling under the umbrella of Human Resource Management (HRM), people management encompasses a wide range of responsibilities. Here's a list of the top priorities for most people managers:
Why is effective people management so important?
Since people are often at the heart of an organization, their manager's leadership style is crucial for a functional company. Effective people management can help boost retention, employee engagement, and organizational effectiveness.
Retention
Managers can significantly impact employee experience.
It has been said that people don't leave a company; they leave a manager. Plus, people often remember the great managers who looked out for them and helped them reach their goals.
By developing an effective people management system, you increase the chances of retaining valuable employees.
Employee engagement
One role of a people manager is empowering employees. This can be via feedback, goal-setting and career development, or workflow management.
This empowerment is a powerful engagement tool as employees who feel reasonably challenged within their roles are likely to be more engaged in their work.
Additionally, employee engagement through empowerment builds trust. A manager who dedicates time and energy to supporting an employee's growth is often the kind of manager people trust.
Organizational effectiveness
When employees are clear on their role within the organization and team, feel their contributions are seen, heard, valued, and feel personally advocated for, they will bring their best to work.
By improving employee performance, you increase the chances of meeting the team's objectives within the broader company mission. All while hopefully, while having some fun along the way!
Key people management skills
- Empathy
- Communication
- Active listening
- Creativity
- Organizational aptitude
1. Empathy
As with many people-centric roles, people management takes empathy. Whether it's providing feedback or delegating tasks, empathy helps people managers understand where another person is coming from. By standing in their shoes and seeing things from their point of view, you can better understand what drives and challenges another person.
2. Communication
Communication is key to succeeding in many roles, and people management is no different. Successful people managers can communicate clearly with their coworkers in various circumstances. They balance candor with politeness to get their message across to many people.
3. Active listening
It's essential to listen to employees and coworkers. When active listening, people managers listen to the whole person. Before responding, they note what the other person says verbally, along with any physical cues that might otherwise go unnoticed.
4. Creativity
Every person is slightly different. Each employee has different needs and drivers. Discovering these differences is one thing, and acting upon this information is quite another. It takes creative thinking to solve people problems. So having out-of-the-box problem-solving strategies can be an asset in people management.
5. Organizational aptitude
People management involves a lot of people and moving parts. It takes an organized individual to develop and manage company-wide and team-wide processes. Simple practices that use people's time efficiently have a considerable impact. Creating an agenda for meetings, promptly following up on communications, and leveraging project management tools can be highly effective.
Tips for effective people management
1. Know the Systems
Know your systems and how they interrelate. The organization has a mission, and each team has an objective to fulfill in service of that overall mission. How does the work of each team interplay to achieve that overall career goal? On your team, what is the established system? Is it effective in meeting the stated objectives? What are the various roles that make up the team, and how do they work together? What are the responsibilities of each role? Why do they matter?
2. Identify the “Why”
In the book Start with the Why, Simon Sinek explains that leaders inspire and motivate others by knowing the "why" of themselves, the organization, and their direct reports. Learn about the individuals on your team beyond their current roles.
How is this role in service of their career or life goals? What energizes them, and what depletes them? Where do they see themselves in five years? What matters to them most, and why? By learning about the individuals on your team, you will better understand what motivates each person.
3. Create a Strategic Plan
You have been charged with leading the objective of your team forward. What key markers will show that you and your team have accomplished the goals laid out by leadership? What indicators or information will you look for to validate your assumptions or course-correct once work is underway? What obstacles could prevent success, and how will you get ahead of them?
Your job is not just to communicate and implement this plan with your team and colleagues but to manage it to a productive end, even if the plan needs to change.
4. Hire Right
If you have the opportunity to hire anew, consider the strengths and weaknesses of your current team.
What skillset would fill in the current team's gaps and suit the role that needs to be filled?
Consider your internal candidates, including current team members who have expressed interest in taking on that role. But then cast the opportunity out wide and discover diverse applicants with necessary credentials. Consider how your team might benefit from the greater diversity of perspectives. Don't just hire from a pool of people you know. Broaden the search.
5. Ensure Equity
Keep an eye on fairness in pay and expectation with new hires and all employees entrusted to you. Is there a pay disparity potentially based on gender, race, or other? Work to address it and to create a fair, inclusive, and equitable team. Remember, you are in a place of power and set the stage for your team.
6. Set Expectations
Clearly state and communicate the expectations of each role and the individual who will fulfill that role. What are the expected deliverables, and by what date and time? Who delivers what, and who acts as the backup? Co-create the rules and expectations for increased ownership.
7. Co-create Accountability
With expectations clearly stated and communicated, each individual is held accountable. If the expectations are co-created, keeping the individual accountable falls not only on you but also on the team as a whole.
8. Use a Strengths-based Approach
By using a strengths-based approach, individuals will respond in kind with a positive growth mindset. First, acknowledge the person's strengths. What went well? Then address the areas that could use improvement. Perhaps consider how another team member's strengths could bolster the growth required by the individual by working together.
Schedule meetings with the team as a whole and individually on a regular basis. This will build a sense of open communication and foster trust. Rather than having issues and frustration build until they are bursting at the seams, they will be addressed within the forum created for open communication throughout the year. As a manager, you will check in on the team's performance and keep a pulse on how initiatives are moving forward or not. Issues can then be more quickly identified and addressed.
10. Set a Clear Agenda
No one has time to waste or the desire to sit in front of another Zoom meeting. Have a clear agenda with an adhered-to timeline so that team members understand that their time is valued.
11. Build Psychological Safety
Create an environment in which people feel safe to share their accomplishments and failures. Create an environment that welcomes dumb ideas as well as brilliant ideas. Everyone knows, sometimes those dumb ideas end up being the brilliant ones. Value the diverse perspectives of each individual and give them the space to be heard and considered. By creating a safe space, where people are not criticized, ideas will be generated, problems solved, and innovations made. In an environment that is not safe, you will hear the sound of crickets.
12. Check your Ego
You were chosen to be the manager because of your knowledge and, most likely, your interpersonal skills. When communicating with your team, be okay with letting go of the belief that no one else knows as much as you, nor will they be able to deliver the high quality that you demand. Be aware of that voice trying to burst through and keep it in check as you practice numbers 13-15.
13. Practice Active Listening In All Interactions
Set aside your judgment about what you think the person is about to say. Be present and listen to what the person is actually saying at the moment. Reflect and summarize what you have heard. Why does this matter? The individual will feel heard, acknowledged, and valued by you.
14. Develop Empathy
Consider the perspective of the other person and relate to the human emotions being expressed. Remember that the professional role is only one part of the individual.
15. Ask Open-ended Questions
Ask questions that result in more than a “yes” or “no” answer. Instead of asking, do you agree with the solution (yes/no), ask, what do you propose? How would you handle the situation? (Avoid using the word why, as it can come across as blaming.)
The open-ended questions will take more time initially, especially if you are sure that you have the right answer. However, over time, as the members feel empowered to find the answers for themselves, your time will be freed to consider higher-level strategic planning.
16. Be an Advocate
Advocate for your team as a whole and for the individuals that are a part of it. Take the team’s feedback and consider if expectations and working practices within the group and with other teams need to be better communicated and/or adjusted. If additional resources are required to better fulfill the team‘s objective, make the case to the higher-ups so that it is seen as a win-win for all.
17. Share Opportunities to Grow
Share the resources, professional development opportunities, classes, coaching, and organizations to be involved in. With continued learning, there is a greater possibility and satisfaction.
18. Celebrate the Wins
Acknowledge a job well done, deadlines met, progress made. Celebrate the wins.
19. Have the Difficult and Direct Conversations
Nothing is more frustrating or toxic than when an obvious problem is left unaddressed. The structure and expectations set in place should ease the process and act as a North Star, guiding the conversation.
20. Trust your People
Trust the people and give them the space they need to get it done in their own way. The systems are clarified. The expectations are set. Offer the flexibility to get the job done in the best way they see fit. A bike ride for lunch may be needed to get the creative juices flowing or blow off steam before the person is ready to go at it again.
21. Welcome Feedback
Welcome all feedback. It is the only way to grow and to see what you are not seeing.
22. Lead by Example
Model the behavior that you want to see in members of your team. Model the boundaries that are necessary for all to flourish. Take a break to recharge. No one benefits from 24/7 work. Your team will follow your lead.
23. Be a Mentor
Share the wisdom of your professional life journey and help launch your employees to their next level of development and opportunity.
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