Your employees are the biggest asset you have. Their performance and attitude can result in the success or failure of your business. The most difficult part of any manager’s job is people management. He or she is required to lead, motivate, train, inspire, and encourage. On the other hand, he or she is also responsible for hiring, firing, disciplining, training and evaluating. These functions seem to be at odds, but a successful manager can integrate both the positive and negative aspects of these tasks to create a positive, productive work force.
People management, also known as human resource management (HRM), encompasses the tasks of recruitment, management, and providing ongoing support and direction for the employees of an organization. These tasks can include the following: compensation, hiring, performance management, organization development, safety, wellness, benefits, employee motivation, communication, administration, and training.
When managing the people within an organization, a manager must focus on both hiring the right people and then getting the most out of these people. New personnel must provide the organization with the best talent available that meets the needs of the business. The organization must look ahead to how a new employee can be used to their fullest. Getting the most out of an employee means a business has consistent policies and practices in place to provide its people with appropriate training and development. Employees are involved as “partners" in the business.
Probably the most important task a manager will face when dealing with the people under his direction is that of bringing out the best in them. Unlocking people potential is often seen as the key to any business’s success. When an employee’s talents are not channeled correctly, their behavior can seriously compromise the success of an organization. Some of the roles that an employee who is not being used to his potential can take on are as follows: procrastinator, martyr, gossip, manipulator, backstabber, narcissist, a deer in the headlights, black hole, stonewalled, curmudgeon, bully, and predator.
Instead of dealing with employees that develop defense mechanisms to mask their dissatisfaction with their work situation, let’s look as some ways to encourage effective behavior at work. After a problem behavior has been identified, address the employee immediately. Discuss taking responsibility for the ineffective behavior, how the behavior manifests itself, and the effect the behavior is having on the organization. Next, give the employee alternatives to his current behavior. In other words, teach him or her how the principles of achievement:
Now that the employee has alternatives to their current behavior, draw up a performance improvement contract in which he or she agrees to specific actions to change his or her ineffective behavior. After the contract is signed, a manager needs to stay involved and committed to the process of change. He or she cannot assume that the problem will be automatically fixed now that it has been brought to light. The employee will require praise and reinforcement of any progress that they are able to make. If positive change is to occur, it will be evident soon after the initial confrontation. If this does not occur, a termination meeting must be scheduled quickly. One employee’s toxic behavior can quickly spread throughout an organization if it is not dealt with quickly and efficiently.
When evaluating an organization’s workforce, there are several areas that must be addressed. First, the staff must have the tools and resources that they need to do their jobs effectively. Employees cannot be blamed for an organization’s inefficiency if they are not provided with the equipment necessary to perform adequately. Next, get to know each employee as an individual and make sure that they are aware of their specific role within the organization. Clarify their responsibilities and goals. Also, involve each employee in making decisions which affect their area of expertise. This will result in the employee feeling that they “have a say" in what goes on in the organization and he or she will feel a sense of ownership. Finally, make sure that employees have an opportunity to have fun with their coworkers at appropriate times.
People Empowerment can be a very effective tool within the field of people management. This technique can be used to involve employees in any improvement program within an organization. Authority, accountability, and responsibility are delegated to the employees for improving the processes which are under their control without first having to obtain permission from management before making changes. This can be successful only when employees are recognized, congratulated, and rewarded for their commitment to problem solving.
1) Accountants
Accountants are the second cousins of statisticians and librarians. They tend to be meticulous, orderly, cynical, short on humor, and long on precision. Not your typical fun folks. Bob Newhart used to joke about starring in a failed television series called "Frontier Accountant." Enough said?
Accountants, like other strange animals, come in several varieties. There's the Certified Pubkc Account?ant (CPA), the Certified Management Accountant (CMA), and in Great Britain the Chartered Accountant, which is very much like a CPA.
Accountants may suffer from persecution complexes and believe that they're unloved. They usually welcome friends from outside their function and can be good drinking buddies because they're often eager for companionship. Never try to outdrink an accountant, however, because most of them did brewery or distillery audits in their early days and have a high tolerance for alcohol.
Deal with accountants diplomatically. They can be nasty when cornered. If you attack their figures in a meeting, for example, they may let loose a barrage of financial jargon that leaves nonaccountants too shaken to answer coherently. Instead, go one-on-one with the accountants beforehand. Ask them to explain their figures, and listen respectfully and eagerly. Nod your head a lot. You'll find that this will get you a clear and patient outline of what their numbers really mean.
It pays to be nice to accountants because, aside from having lots of clout in today's bottom-line-oriented organizations, they also sign the paychecks.
2) Executives ,
"Executive" is a nebulous term that implies power, status, and the right to take a three-martini, two-hour lunch. The label is often reserved for higher-level man?agers, but its use varies from one company to the next. When you get right down to it, anybody who dresses neatly and totes a briefcase looks like an executive, so the title is pretty meaningless. If you wish to you should feel free to adopt all the outward trappings of executive status. Nobody will object; most will be impressed.
3 ) Directors
The company's directors are supposed to manage the top managers. The directors, in turn, answer to the stockholders, who technically own the company.
Directors are paid well for being stockholder advocates and overseeing top management, but there's also a risk. Directors who rubber-stamp top management's requests without weighing all the facts and issues have been sued for malpractice by stockholders. Nevertheless, a corporate director has lots of status and plenty of perks, which makes the job worthwhile.
Some of the directors may themselves be accomplished self promototers and salesmen in theirselves for you to learn from . That is how they got to be directors.
4) Chairman of the Board
The chairman of the board is probably the most adroit bluffer in the boardroom. In addition, he or she has an above-average chance of getting publicly flayed if the company gets into trouble.
The chairman writes a letter to stockholders that usually appears on the first page of the company's annual report. It's not generally realized that this letter (which patronizingly refers to the business as "your company") isn't audited or critiqued.
Consequently, it may contain several outrageous statements about the company's past, present, or future condition. As a future management candiate you need to remember is that the chairman has a vote when directors cast their ballots, so the time spent briefing or buddying up to the chairman can pay off if you want to get pet projects approved.
5) Marketing People
Marketing people are concerned with advertising, publicity, public relations, personal selling, customer service, distribution, and other things that are supposed to entice customers to buy and to keep 'em happy afterward.
Marketing, like politics, is an inexact science. Com?panies have trouble knowing which parts of marketing work and which ones don't. If you want to be quotable in a marketing crisis, you might repeat Sir Thomas Lipton's comment about advertising: "Half the money we spend on advertising is wasted, but we don't know which half." The idea applies to marketing in general. All potential marketing management candidates should memorize the buzz phrase "consumer orientation" because that's the point of view that most companies have (or claim they have) today. Every activ?ity in the company is intended to satisfy consumer wants and needs, including those grueling top management strategy retreats in Hawaii, Cancun , or the Grand Cayman Islands. Good future managers master the ability to de?fend these junkets with a straight face. In the immortal words of Malcolm Forbes, "There are more fakers in business than in jail."
6) Analysts The title 'Analyst" is confusing. To neurotic New Yorkers and Hollywood residents, it means psychiatrist. To a few people in the real (nonbusiness) world, it can mean chemist. In business, however, it's likely to refer to the sharper end of the accounting or finance department. This includes accountants who want to be something else and MBAs and others who are passing through the finance department on their way up the corporate ladder. In major multinational corporations people are often given the title of analyst when they're doing a good job but have run out of promotional opportunities. Analysts tend to be perceptive, ambitious, and perhaps a tad insecure.
Nowhere is this more true than with bright people who work for major brokerage firms. These people assume that they'll make it to the top because they're sharper than the partners. Unfortunately, there'll come when their day of reconing will come when the odds which like a Las Vegas casino are agains them come into play.
Observe and watch these management types in order that you can imitate and follow them into the land of perks
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