MANAGING AND LEADING PEOPLE

Seriously? Is that such a thing? Aren’t people just allowing us to manage them simply to keep their jobs? Why is it that workplaces frequently experience conflict, tension, disagreements and at times, resistance?

Our society follows a structure. For instance, regardless of how late you are for a meeting, you will still have to stop at every traffic light. Similar to society, at work we also have structure. Regardless of how high up you are in the office, you report to your boss, who in turn reports to someone else.  The issue at stake is, if we have to go through these established layers of office structure, how can we make it work effectively and how can we manage to survive the occassional stress of the work place.

In this era of high technology, when excessive texting fills our days with crisis and  senseless urgency, we must never forget that the workforce is composed of human beings that although are capable to perform the most complicated tasks, also have off-work lives that may affect performance.

Therefore, if you are managing or leading one person or a group, here is a simple guide to follow to be effective, flexible and have a productive staff working in a pleasant workplace:

• Be as CLEAR as possible in your directives to staff
• Be an honest LISTENER                              
• Offer as much SUPPORT as you can
• Provide GUIDANCE to keep them in the right path
• APPRECIATE their efforts and more important, mention it
• Always RESPECT the other person as you wish to be respected
• EMPATHIZE with their issues out of the office, remember, you have off-work issues too
• Always, apply these guiding principles to ONE PERSON AT A TIME

“If you lead well, they will buy-in and follow accordingly”

“If you are dictatorial and insensitive they will be forced to OBEY”


Angie