Managing People
They won’t know what you want if you don’t tell them. You can’t assume that the people you manage know what to do in all situations. Tell them
what you need and when you need it and why you need it. This last point – why, is often overlooked. You want your staff, team, group to know why you want them to do something. If they know why they can make better decisions about how
and when to get it done.
Don’t over manage, but be specific. Micro managing destroys innovation in others. Let them be creative once you have told them the What, When and Why. You should only micromanage when
the issue is critically important or the staff member has been missing his / her commitments. Then you absolutely need to set specific targets and follow up on them as often as daily.
Tell your staff what you know about a situation
that they are working on – if they know everything you know they will make better decisions, because they know that, plus what they already knew.
Do not try to affix blame. When something goes wrong, finding who to blame is
counterproductive. Instead ask how can we correct the problem, especially if the person who made the mistake is a young upcoming rookie. Assign that person to fix the problem. They will learn much and will respect you as a manager.
Work is not a democracy. If you are the boss, it is ok to ask others what they think should be done, but your decision is the only one that counts. When asking others what they think, try to ask this without first saying what you think.
You will get more honest answers, not colored by their trying to go along with you.
Work is not a popularity contest. Sometimes hard decisions need to be made, decisions that will not be universally liked. Staff reductions
are never fun, but have to be done from time to time for the health of the organization. Requiring people to work long or strange hours is not likely to win you popularity points, but if a project is behind schedule, do it. One time I was told
by my boss that I couldn’t go on a long time planned vacation. I didn’t like it, my wife really didn’t like it, but we got through it.
Have empathy. Your employees have a life outside of work. Try to
appreciate their situation and as much as you can accommodate that life. Give them time off when needed, let them work flex hours or work from home if possible. If they are frustrated at work, listen to the cause of their frustrations and try to
improve the source of their frustration.
Hire the best. The interview process is key to seeing what a person has done and needs to be thorough. A candidate should be interviewed by five to seven managers and peers.
Reference checks have more or less been weakened by law suits by ex-employees who were given bad reference checks, but I have almost always been able to find a colleague of the applicant who will tell me what the person is really like. I have also been
amazed when I hear that a looser I got rid of had gotten another job at a company I respect. Why didn’t someone call me?
Take action early. If you do get a looser in your organization, the very best thing you can do is
to get rid of them as quickly as you can. Human Resources Departments make this difficult to do, and will most likely have you put them on a performance improvement plan or some such program so the company won’t get sued, but I have never seen
these plans succeed in changing the looser into a winner. I have been most successful at getting rid of people with performance problems by doing the micromanagement thing described earlier. The person usually gets the message and quits.
Note also that the others on your staff probably know that there is a poor performer in the group and are very happy and respectful of you as a manager when you do find a way to show him / her the exit. It also reemphasizes to them that poor performance
will not be tolerated.