How The Best Managers are Managing People

Managing people well is what makes best Managers

When you are in a position of management, it can be easy to lose sight of the fact that you are managing a group of individuals.

Part of becoming a better manager is to remember that the best managers are in charge of people with unique abilities, feelings, and motivation.

Here are some tips to become a better manager by managing people.

A Good Manager Saves Employees Time

You’ve heard the phrase, “time is money,” and it should be applied to your employee’s time. Often, management views employees time as the more time they spend working, the better.

However, what good is more time worked if the work done is not productive or effective?

It may be time to change the mindset around work time. If, in fact, time is money, shouldn’t time be counted as carefully as money?

As a manager, you can ensure that your employees work more efficiently, rather than just more.

One way to do this is to set a time budget on projects, just like you would set a financial budget.

This would enable you to track where there are overruns, and it can help correct bad management practices like defensiveness when you encourage employees to avoid additional time costs as well as cash costs.

Through tracking your employees time, you can see clearly on paper where your employees are struggling, where they could use more help, and where they could use your guidance.

For example, if your employees have suggested an additional position be filled to help with productivity, time tracking can give a clear justification to leadership that filling that position would save time, thus saving money.

As a manager, it is up to you to give your employees the tools they need to work efficiently and save them time.

This may be by hiring, or not reducing, employees, automating certain tasks, and not holding unnecessary meetings during the work day.

Good managers will make a choice to not reward employees for working endless hours, but rather save the rewards for working more productively during reasonable workday hours and producing the desired results.

With this type of time-saving management, you’ll find that you attract better workers, because that is the type of management top talent wants to work for.

You’ll attract better employees when you demonstrate that you have their back and recognize what you can do to save your employees time and help them work more efficiently.

When workers feel overburdened, and like they have no time to do everything they need to do, productivity will actually go down.

As a good manager, it is up to you to make decisions and implement change that rewards productivity rather than overwork.

Time is money, and there is only so much of it in one day, and a good manager will treat all of his or her employees’ time like the scarce resource it is.

As a good manager, it is up to you to make decisions and implement change that rewards productivity rather than overwork.

Time is money, and there is only so much of it in one day, and a good manager will treat all of his or her employees’ time like the scarce resource it is.

A Good Manager Makes Employees Feel Valued

Here is an important question to ask yourself:

Do your employees feel valued?

Would you know if they didn’t?

The corporate environment is changing, and whether you manage in an established company or a startup still crafting its work culture, servant leadership is quickly becoming the preferred method of management.

Valuing your employees will lead to a whole host of benefits for the company from producing better results, encouraging productivity, and increasing trust.

When you value your team, you can expect to see these three major changes happen:

1- Your team will trust and believe in your leadership

Entrepreneur and author Stephen M.R. Covey stated that a team with high trust in leadership will produce results faster and at a lower cost to the company.

Additionally, many of Fortune magazine’s best companies to work for had high levels of trust and transparency listed as defining characteristics.

Employees are much more likely to remain loyal and trusting if they believe management is transparent in its businesses practices.

What can you do to build trust with your employees? The leaders at some of these top companies to work for do these several things:

Have open lines of communication.

Your employees should not be afraid to come to you with ideas, complains, and suggestions.

When they do come to you, they need to feel like their voice is being heard, not like you are doing them a favor by allowing them to speak.

Also, you should make it easy for them to communicate with you.

2- Share their goals and vision for the future with their employees.

When employees feel like they are part of the goals and part of the future, they will display more motivation and loyalty.

– Listen to and responds to what they hear employees saying to show a proven record of meeting the needs of employees.

– Give opportunities for additional education and training for employees to advance their careers.

3- Your team will respect you as a leader

In order to be respected, you need to show your employees the same courtesy.

At the same time, you need to challenge your employees to do their jobs at a high level.

This mutual respect allows for collaboration and a sense of value for your employees.

When your employees respect you, they will also be more open to your feedback and suggestions on how to improve their performance.

Simple things like showing kindness, treating your employees politely, being encouraging, and extending courtesy to your workers are easy ways to show respect.

Your team will have their needs met

Do you know why your employees come to work every day?

If you were to ask them, you’d likely get a different answer from each one.

Maybe they just need the paycheck, maybe they feel like their services are essential to the company, or maybe they truly love what they do.

It’s important to engage emotionally with your team to understand what motivates your employees, and what will drive them.

With this information, you can create training and development opportunities, delegate tasks, and offer incentives that will drive each them to do their best work by making it things they actually care about.

Play to your employee’s individual strengths to keep them engaged in their work.

A Good Manager Allows Employees to Set Their Own Goals

Of course, your organisation will have specific goals that apply to all employees that are essential to the organisation’s success, but it is important for employees to set their own goals for their individual development and advancement as well.

Studies show that people feel the most motivation and personal satisfaction when they complete goals they choose for themselves.

This intrinsic motivation allows people to enjoy what they are doing more, perform better, be more creative, and find the process and information more interesting.

This type of individual goal-setting requires managers to give their employees some autonomy, and good managers will do what they can to help facilitate these goals.

You want your employee’s individual goals to line up with the goals of the organisation, so make sure you clearly communicate the strategy and future direction of the organisation.

Here are some ways you can facilitate the goals your employees set for themselves:

Keep them informed about new opportunities within the company

Rather than lose an employee to the pursuit of new experiences and skills, encourage and facilitate internal transfers.

If an internal movement to a different department would benefit an employee and the company, resist the temptation to hoard the talent to yourself.

Sometimes facilitating an employee’s goal means looking beyond your own area for growth and learning opportunities.

Keep top talent engaged with developmental opportunities

When it comes to your high-potential employees, it is important to be extra purposeful in their development and to make plans for experiences that will help them hone their skills.

Rather than have top talent misses out on opportunities, be proactive about notifying them for upcoming openings or special tasks that will help them meet their personal goals.

Understand that success is defined differently by everyone

Your employees will likely have changes in their personal lives that require them to either advance or slow down their career.

Rather than make your employees choose between work and their personal life, help them to integrate themselves better into their career, depending on their current situation and what they define as success.

Don’t make it impossible for employees to manage both their workloads and their personal lives.

Clearly, define performance expectations

Different levels will have different expectations, and your employees should be clear on what their expectations are.

This will help avoid frustration when employees can’t seem to get ahead, and it will allow them to better self-assess and determine if they are at a performance level that would allow them to move ahead in the company.

As a manager, you play a critical role in the development of your employees, and you need to ensure that you understand their career goals.

This will allow you to develop experiences, training, and opportunities for help them achieve their goals.

Employees should be expected to fully use their skills and continuously grow, and it is up to you to ensure that they do.

A Good Manager Gives Instant Feedback

Providing your employees with instant and continuous feedback can be critical to your organisation, especially if you work in an environment that thrives on innovations and requires constant adjustments.

Instant feedback allows your team to improve their performance quickly.

As a manager, one of the best tools you have to encourage higher performance is open and honest feedback that is done promptly.

If you are still only conducting yearly, or even quarterly reviews, it’s time to change that.

Do you remember what you had for lunch a week ago?

Unless you have the same thing every day, it’s not easy to recall. That simple example makes it clear why feedback should be instant.

When it is given in the moment, or as soon after as possible, your employees will still have a clear idea of what actions they are currently taking that work, and what doesn’t, and they can immediately adjust from there.

Your immediate feedback will be much more likely to create a positive change in behaviour than if it were given after the fact.

Timely feedback doesn’t just apply to corrective actions, either. When an employee receives immediate positive feedback, it is much more rewarding than if it were to come at a later date.

Here are some tips and ideas for giving instant feedback:

If the feedback is a little more critical, do it quietly behind closed doors.

Learn what type of feedback your employees prefer. Some might want acknowledgement in front of everyone, and some might want a quiet pat on the back. Others prefer feedback in writing.

If you utilise a quick email or memo, follow it up with face-to-face feedback to ensure the message is clear.

Lead with the employee’s strengths before any negative feedback.

Allow feedback to be a two-way street and encourage employees to give their feedback on you as well.

Along with timeliness, your feedback should be specific.

A great way to provide specific feedback is by establishing performance expectations beforehand. When you can tell an employee they are exceeding their goal by 10%; it is much more effective than simply saying, “great job.”

Likewise, when they have a clear measure of how short of the goal they are, they are likely to be more motivated to make up the difference.

Pay attention to the manner in which you give feedback, as well. Typically, people respond best to feedback given in a positive way, and that is the best way to help improve performance.

Avoid sugar-coating things, and keep feedback accurate, factual, and complete. Consider starting with what the employee did right, then follow with what needs to be adjusted.

Feedback can be incredibly motivating for your team when it is done right.

Remember, people feel the most motivation when they achieve goals they set for themselves.

This motivational factor of self-achievement drives employees, but it also requires letting employees know that they are valued.

It is difficult for people to fully sustain internal motivation from self-achievement, and they do require occasional external reinforcement.

Some of your employees will require more validation than others, and timely and specific positive feedback can help boost that internal sense of value.

Feedback can be used as a way to show you value your employees, and it will reinforce positive behaviours.

By giving timely, accurate, and specific feedback to your employees, you’ll see both individual and team performances improve.

An effective feedback system also allows employees to have a better picture of where they are in reaching their goals and the company’s goals.

A Good Manager Will Teach with Encouragement

Take a second and imagine a baby trying to walk for the first time. If the baby falls, you don’t yell at the baby for making a mistake. Instead, you use encouragement to get them to keep trying.

The same goes for employees. Your employees will take to encouragement much better than they will to punishment.

In fact, you may notice that they regress when being punished, or they become defensive. It is impossible to learn if you are too busy defending your actions.

That’s not to say you should never be tough with your employees. It is possible to be firm without punishing, and you should remain realistic with your encouragement.

When you encourage your employees, you are strengthening positive behaviour and actions, and increasing the likelihood of the employee continuing to do good work.

Encouragement works to enhance your employee’s self-image, and it can be an effective motivational tool.

Here is some way to utilise encouragement to train and develop your employees:

Clearly, define what you expect from your employees, and reinforce the connection between high performance and rewards.

Encourage workers to conserve time, money, and resources to help increase productivity.

Show encouragement when an employee seems to be falling behind or becoming disinterested to help avoid job dissatisfaction.

Encourage employees to learn new techniques and skills, participate in additional training, and accept more responsibility. This will help them reach their career goals and motivate them with a sense of accomplishment.

Encourage your employees to make suggestions that will help improve work procedures and to find innovative ways to do things. By listening to their suggestions, they will feel valued.

Show appreciation and give rewards for work that are proportional to the importance of the work or the amount of improvement to increase job satisfaction and loyalty to the company.

By utilising encouragement rather than fear or punishment, your employees will feel motivated and satisfied to do their jobs well, and it will build a deeper trust and loyalty within the team and organisation.

Conclusion to Managing People

Managing people requires accepting the fact that not everyone is motivated by the same thing and has the same career goals. When you recognize that your employees are individuals, it will help you develop a much more effective management style that leads to each one of your employees feeling valued, trusting your leadership, finding self-motivation, and working towards their career goals along with the goals of the company.

Much of managing people deals with ensuring your employees feel valued.

When your employees feel like they are valued by leadership, they will put out better work, be more productive, be loyal to the organisation, and trust your leadership.

Once you start to show your employees that you value their skills, ideas, talents, and individuality, you’ll find that you develop a mutual respect for each other, and you’ll create a work environment that is productive and enjoyable.