People management originates from HR and extends to leaders and employees across an organization. Successful people management can boost morale and employee engagement, lower turnover rates, and improve team communication.
Let’s examine what people management entails, how it benefits teams, and the skills required for effective people management.
People managers are responsible for all tasks related to new talent, employee engagement, and career development. They often oversee the onboarding and training of new employees.
After onboarding, people managers collaborate with other managers to offer feedback and mentorship to employees. This teamwork-focused approach helps employees achieve their goals and work well within the team.
People management falls under the broader scope of Human Resource Management (HRM) and includes various responsibilities. Here are the top priorities for most people managers:
- Training & development
- Onboarding
- Recruiting
- Compensation & benefits organization
- Employee engagement
- Performance management
Importance of People Management
Given that people are central to an organization, a manager’s leadership style is essential for a well-functioning company. Effective people management can enhance retention, employee engagement, and overall organizational effectiveness.
Retention
Managers play a pivotal role in shaping the employee experience.
It’s often said that employees leave managers, not companies. Moreover, people tend to remember exceptional managers who supported them and helped them achieve their goals.
Implementing an effective people management system increases the likelihood of retaining valuable employees.
Employee engagement
Empowering employees is a key role of a people manager. This can involve providing feedback, setting goals, facilitating career development, and managing workflows.
Empowerment is a powerful engagement tool, as employees who feel adequately challenged are more likely to be engaged in their work.
Furthermore, employee engagement through empowerment fosters trust. Managers who invest time and energy in supporting an employee’s growth are usually trusted by their team.
Organizational effectiveness
When employees understand their roles within the organization and team, feel that their contributions are recognized and valued, and believe they have personal advocates, they are more likely to perform at their best.
Enhancing employee performance improves the likelihood of achieving team objectives within the broader company mission. And ideally, they will enjoy the process too!
Strategies for Effective People Management
1. Understand the Systems
Grasp the interconnections within your organization. Recognize how each team contributes to the overall mission and assess your team’s system for efficiency in meeting objectives. Know the roles within your team, their responsibilities, and how they work together to achieve goals.
2. Develop a Strategic Plan
Create a plan to guide your team towards achieving leadership’s goals. Identify success markers, indicators for validating assumptions, and potential obstacles. Communicate and implement this plan, manage it to a successful conclusion, and adapt it as necessary.
3. Promote Equity
Ensure fairness in pay and expectations for new hires and all team members. Address any pay disparities potentially based on gender, race, or other factors. Aim to create a fair, inclusive, and equitable team. As a manager, you have the power to foster an equitable workplace.
4. Co-create Accountability
With clear and communicated expectations, each person is held responsible. When these expectations are developed collaboratively, accountability is shared not only by you but also by the entire team.
5. Utilize a Strengths-based Approach
Applying a strengths-based method encourages a positive growth mindset in individuals. Start by recognizing a person’s strengths and successes. Then, address areas needing improvement. Consider how another team member’s strengths could support the individual’s growth through collaboration.
6. Discover the “Why”
Simon Sinek’s Start with the Why highlights the importance of understanding the motivations of yourself, your organization, and your team members. Learn about your team members beyond their roles. Understand their career or life goals, what motivates them, and what drains them. This insight helps you better motivate and inspire each person.
7. Manage Your Ego
As a manager, acknowledge your expertise and interpersonal skills but be willing to let go of the belief that no one else knows as much or can deliver the same quality. Be mindful of this tendency and keep it in check while practicing effective management techniques.
8. Hire Strategically
When hiring, consider your team’s strengths and weaknesses. Identify the skills needed to fill gaps and complement the team. Look beyond internal candidates to a diverse pool of applicants with the required credentials. Broaden your search to include a variety of perspectives, rather than just hiring from familiar sources.
9. Establish a Clear Agenda
Ensure meetings have a clear agenda and adhere to a timeline to show that you value team members’ time and avoid unnecessary meetings.
10. Maintain Regular Communication
Schedule regular meetings with the team collectively and individually to promote open communication and trust. This prevents issues and frustrations from accumulating. Regular check-ins allow you to monitor team performance and progress on initiatives, enabling early identification and resolution of problems.
11. Establish Clear Expectations
Clearly communicate the expectations for each role and individual. Define expected deliverables, deadlines, and responsibilities. Co-create rules and expectations with your team to encourage ownership and accountability.
12. Foster Psychological Safety
Create an environment where people feel safe to share both successes and failures. Encourage all ideas, knowing that sometimes seemingly “dumb” ideas can turn out to be brilliant. Value diverse perspectives and provide a space where everyone feels heard and considered. In a safe environment, ideas flourish, problems are solved, and innovations emerge. Without safety, communication shuts down.
13. Develop Empathy
Understand and relate to the emotions and perspectives of others. Remember, the professional role is just one aspect of an individual’s life.
14. Be an Advocate
Support your team and its members by considering their feedback and adjusting expectations and practices as needed. Advocate for additional resources if necessary, presenting it as a benefit for everyone involved.
16. Ask Open-ended Questions
Encourage more detailed responses by asking questions that require more than a simple “yes” or “no.” Instead of asking, “Do you agree with the solution?” ask, “What do you propose?” or “How would you handle the situation?” Avoid using “why” as it can seem accusatory.
17. Share Opportunities to Grow
Provide resources and opportunities for professional development, such as classes, coaching, and relevant organizations. Continued learning enhances satisfaction and potential.
18. Celebrate the Wins
Recognize and celebrate achievements, whether it’s completing a project, meeting deadlines, or making progress. Acknowledgment boosts morale.
19. Have the Difficult and Direct Conversations
Address problems directly and promptly. Clear structures and expectations will guide these conversations and help resolve issues effectively.
20. Trust Your People
Trust your team members and give them the autonomy to accomplish tasks in their own way. Flexibility can foster creativity and productivity.
21. Welcome Feedback
Be open to all feedback as it is essential for growth and gaining new perspectives.
22. Lead by Example
Demonstrate the behavior you want to see in your team. Set boundaries, take breaks, and prioritize well-being. Your team will follow your lead.
23. Be a Mentor
Share your professional experiences and knowledge to help your employees develop and reach new opportunities.
24. Practice Active Listening in All Interactions
Put aside any preconceived notions about what you think the person will say. Be fully present and focus on what they are saying in the moment. Reflect and summarize their words to ensure they feel heard, acknowledged, and valued.
How to Develop Your People Management Skills
- Understand Your Emotional Intelligence Evaluate your awareness and control of your emotions and how you use them in managing interpersonal relationships.
- Enroll in a Coaching-for-Leadership Class Such a class can help you develop active listening skills and learn to ask powerful, open-ended questions. Alternatively, you can practice on your own by asking colleagues open-ended questions like “what else?” and truly listening to their responses.
- Clarify Your Core Values Identify what values matter most to you and what your vision of a fulfilling life is. Ensure your goals align with these values and vision. This clarity will enhance your ability to lead both yourself and others.
- Promote Collaborative Problem-Solving Share your ideas with your team and encourage them to co-create the best solutions together.
- Delegate Responsibilities Trust your team members to meet and exceed your expectations. Delegating tasks helps them grow and develop confidence while freeing up your time for strategic tasks, allowing you to move beyond being just a direct contributor.
- Conduct a 360-Degree Assessment Collect feedback from your boss, peers, and direct reports. Identify your strengths and areas for improvement. Understand how others perceive you to foster personal growth through continuous feedback.
- Prioritize Rest and Recharging Recognize when it’s time to take a break. Schedule regular rest and relaxation, take vacations, and ensure your team does the same. This balance is crucial for maintaining long-term productivity and well-being.
Essential Skills for People Management
People management requires a blend of both technical and interpersonal skills. Here, we focus on the interpersonal skills, as they are widely shared across people managers, while technical skills can vary by team. Here are some key skills you need to lead a team effectively:
Active Listening Skills
Active listening is more than just hearing what your team members are saying. It’s about understanding their perspectives, acknowledging their ideas, and responding in a way that shows you value their input.
Time Management Skills
Time management is about more than just meeting deadlines. It’s about prioritizing tasks, managing your own time effectively, and helping your team do the same.
Conflict Resolution Skills
Conflict is inevitable in any team. Effective managers can mediate disagreements and turn them into opportunities for growth.
Motivation Skills
Inspiring your team and encouraging their best performance is a skill that can significantly impact a team’s morale and productivity.
Organizational Skills
As a manager, you’ll need to juggle multiple tasks, manage your team’s workload, and ensure that everything is running smoothly. Strong organizational skills are key to keeping everything on track.
Adaptability
Change is a constant in any business. Managers need to be resilient and adaptable, able to lead their teams through unexpected challenges.
Decision-Making Skills
Managers frequently need to make swift decisions, often under pressure. The ability to balance risk and reward and make informed choices is critical.
Communication Skills
Clear and consistent communication is crucial for managing people. It helps align the team, prevents misunderstandings, and keeps everyone feeling supported.
People Manager Responsibilities
The role of managing people encompasses a range of duties, which expand as the team size grows. Larger teams necessitate more individual meetings, mediation of interpersonal conflicts, and supervision of employees. Below are the primary responsibilities associated with managing people:
Recruitment of Suitable Candidates
As a manager of people, you are involved in the recruitment process for your team. This includes identifying the necessary skills and qualities for the position, participating in interviews, and selecting candidates who not only possess the requisite skills but also resonate with the team’s culture and the company’s principles.
Hiring the right individuals is essential for constructing a robust, united team and propelling its success. It’s crucial to recognize that finding the right fit for a role is just as vital as finding the right person for that role.
You must identify the skills and expertise that are lacking in your current team to achieve present and future growth objectives. This also pertains to promotions and internal transfers.
Cultivating Organizational Culture
Managers of people play a pivotal role in shaping and preserving the organizational culture. While HR and senior management establish the overarching tone, it is often at the team level where the culture truly materializes.
As a manager of people, you are responsible for nurturing a positive and inclusive team atmosphere that aligns with the company’s values. Leading by example is the most effective approach. Assess your company’s values and assess whether your actions mirror them or not. Strive to embody them.
Driving Team and Individual Performance
The performance of your team significantly influences the organization’s success. You are accountable for setting clear expectations, monitoring performance, providing feedback, and ensuring that your team achieves its objectives.
This responsibility for performance management also entails recognizing when a team member is unable to meet the expectations of their role and taking appropriate action, such as reassigning them within the team or parting ways.
Managing these challenging conversations is an integral but often unpleasant aspect of people management.
Facilitating Employee Growth
Managers of people play a crucial role in fostering the professional development of their team members.
This involves identifying individual strengths and areas for improvement, offering learning and growth opportunities, and supporting team members in their career advancement. Many managers serve as coaches or mentors to employees.
As a manager, you should strive to align each employee’s development with the business’s needs while also considering their personal ambitions and interests.
Resolving Interpersonal Conflicts
Conflicts are inevitable in any team setting. As a manager of people, it is your responsibility to address these conflicts effectively, whether they arise within your team or between different teams. This includes mediating discussions, facilitating resolutions, and promoting a harmonious work environment.
Sometimes conflicts may occur between teams rather than within the team itself, or between junior and senior employees. It is your duty to help resolve these conflicts while ensuring that your team members feel supported, especially if they are in the right.
Ensuring Employee Retention
Just as recruiting talent is a critical responsibility, so is retaining it. Managers of people are tasked with creating an environment where team members feel valued, engaged, and motivated to remain with the company.
This entails acknowledging their contributions, addressing their concerns, and ensuring their job satisfaction. Managers wield significant influence over employee well-being, engagement, and ultimately, retention.
