For business leaders today, developing effective people management skills is essential to help keep your business ahead of its competition. A good manager looks after the interests of the company as well as its personnel, wearing many hats to care for many things.
Traditionally, managers only performed in supervisory roles. However, today’s dynamic work environment has required managers to go the extra mile to empower, support, and cheer teams to perform at their best. To be a good leader today, you need to acquire special skills to manage people effectively. Here we delve into the vital skills needed to make you an effective people manager and the benefits of effective people management.
People management in focus
Whether you call it people management or human resources (HR), you can agree that the work involves guiding teams and optimizing performance. As a result, you’ll create a positive work environment and boost productivity.
Management traditionally focused more on the work being done than who did that work. Acquiring people management skills provides insight into managing employees and motivating them to improve productivity.
People management is recognizing the strengths and weaknesses of team members working on a project. A manager who’s fully aware of the dynamics in a team guides and leads them based on what each member can do best.
Depending on the company, the manager learns risks on the job and uses risk intelligence to avoid or minimize the risks. If employees perceive the manager as someone with their interests at heart, productivity increases significantly.
People management skills every leader should learn
What people management skills should a good manager acquire? The skills that can help you look after your employees include:
- Clear communication with personnel
- Effective dispute resolution
- Task delegation
- Team motivation
- Empathy
Each skill you acquire allows you to relate with the team in a particular way. The more of these skills you acquire, the better you become in people management. Let’s look at what each skill involves:
Clear communication with personnel
As a good manager, developing the ability to express your ideas and expectations allows your team to perform the task as expected. The team can also get clear feedback from you and adjust to meet the expectations.
However, clear communication isn’t only about speaking to the team; it also involves listening actively to what your team says. Only by listening can you understand what they need from you.
It also creates a dialogue for everyone to feel heard and understood. As a result, you spur growth in the company. And that’s because the team can talk to you about their ideas for innovations to improve productivity or other types of collaboration.
Effective dispute resolution
It’s ideal to have a harmonious environment where everyone co-exists peacefully, but conflicts sometimes arise. In fact, it’s a common occurrence.
As a people manager, you understand the importance of conflict resolution. The first step is earning the trust of the people under your management. If you encourage people to talk freely and listen to them objectively, you will likely earn their trust.
During a conflict, you need to listen to both parties and note their arguments so you can provide constructive feedback without taking sides. Also, as each person explains their issue, you want to address them promptly to avoid escalation.
Be sure not to criticize anyone on the spot. These comments are better made in a one-on-one meeting. Also, avoid the blame game—remain professional and focus on the issues causing the problem, not the personalities that might invite them.
After successfully resolving a conflict, recognize the effort of each party in working things out and praise them for their own efforts to resolve the issue. In summary, effective dispute resolution involves:
- Earning trust and respect
- Staying neutral and listening
- Assessing underlying problems
- Providing constructive feedback
- Recognizing efforts by both parties
Task delegation
One of your roles as a people manager is delegating responsibility to team members. Before assigning a task to a member, you want to understand the strengths and weaknesses of this person. You’ll assign tasks that each person can perform, and give other tasks to people more suited to execute them.
You can consider each person’s interests, experience, and expertise and delegate responsibilities matching these qualities. Knowing each person’s strengths and expertise allows you to make a better product that you can add to your product datasheets. Not only will you form a well-functioning team, but you’ll also provide the necessary resources to help them perform phenomenally.
The team will use the tools and information you provide to accomplish the project; you want to create stepwise goals for the team to complete the project in stages. Setting intermediate milestones allows you to monitor progress.
Additionally, it’s crucial to utilize an effective resource management software to help allocate tasks efficiently and avoid an under- or over-workload. This tool will assist in balancing work distribution according to each team member’s capacity, ensuring that tasks are assigned in a way that maximizes productivity while minimizing the risk of burnout.
Team motivation
Creating a collaborative environment can motivate the team to work as a unit, which includes a positive work environment. You can also use incentives to achieve the same goal, such as paid vacation days and promotions, when achievements are worthy. You can even award team members with exceptional track record appreciation gifts.
You can also use monetary incentives to motivate the team or certain members when appropriate, such as bonuses, commissions, stock shares or a pay raise. In addition, training can incentivize team members to improve skills.
Empathy
Relating to the thoughts, experiences, and emotions of the people under your leadership gives you an edge as a people manager. Employees want a leader who understands their perspectives. Such leaders can better see a situation from another person’s experience.
Empathy enhances communication with employees. If people perceive you as someone who can look at things from their lens, they’ll interact with you because they feel understood.
Empathy also builds trust between employees and managers. People learn to trust that you’ll understand their problems and provide effective solutions. Also, your employees appreciate your leadership roles and feel cared for if you’re an empathetic people manager.
How to develop people management skills
You can develop people management skills through the following:
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Self-awareness
As much as you want to empathize with your team, you also want to recognize your emotions and how they might affect the people under your leadership. Also, you want to do the same for your beliefs and behavior to ensure they don’t affect your management style.
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Professional development training
You can also develop effective management skills through training. Consider reading books and attending workshops and webinars to gain management skills.
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Implementing acquired skills
As you implement the skills you’ve acquired, your management style improves with time. And the more you implement the skills, the more you develop a better people management style.
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Get feedback from the team
You want to test your effectiveness as a people manager. Feedback from your team can give insight into your management style.
Conclusion
Effective people management is a skill that can make you a better manager. Besides supervising your team, you also want to empower, support, and cheer the people under your management. You’ll learn essential skills such as effective communication and conflict resolution to manage people effectively.
You’ll also learn to motivate your team and resolve conflicts objectively. If the team feels you know what affects them, they’ll open up and improve communication, which helps to build a positive and collaborative work environment.
