Broadly, the role of a manager broadly is to draw the best from the people and their resources to get things done. The nature of most successful managers is that they enjoy coordinating people and resources and typically they are naturally good at controlling processes, projects and outcomes. What about the people; who actually do the work, can they be managed too?

The questions raised in workshops where we discuss managing difficult conversations suggest that many managers would dearly love to know the secret of controlling the people and of course ‘people management’ is a well accepted term. The thing that puts a spanner in the works of the people management plan is the fact that people have free will! They choose to cooperate or not and sometimes they make great decisions and sometimes they don’t. So where does that leave a manager who would really prefer to have a nice logical conversation with someone who is not performing rather than encountering an emotional or defensive response?

There are two areas that a manager can manage in order to ensure the best response from their team members –

1. Self –  own attitudes and communication style
2. Environment – the atmosphere you create in which the team operates

1 Self

People are astute and will pick up on your unspoken assumptions. If you are asking for input just because you have been told that it is a good idea and you don’t actually believe that you will get any sensible ideas, then don’t be surprised when your team members hesitate to speak up.

Watch the words that you choose; focusing always on the negative, using labelling language like ‘your attitude problem’ will limit the effectiveness of your communication.

2 Environment

Creating an environment in which people are engaged and productive depends heavily on the manager’s ability to manage ‘self’. In addition there are other factors that contribute to motivation. Peter Cheese in ‘The Talent Powered Organisation’ refers to the 6 C’s as the factors that should be considered to create engagement; Career (where am I going?), Congruence (how do I fit in?), Community (is it socially rewarding?), Compensation (am I fairy recognised and rewarded?) Coping (how am I supported?) and Content (do I enjoy what I do?).

The way in which to achieve these is through regular communication, feedback and coaching. Good communication builds trust which creates a productive environment to work in.

The paradox is that in order to ‘manage’ people you actually need to manage yourself and your communications first?