Manage People – the Prized Assets

             image courtesy:http://www.internetreputation.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/corporate.jpg



‘When dealing with people remember you are not dealing with creatures of logic but creatures of emotions – Dale Carnegie'

What is People Management? Why do we need to manage People?

Are people’s emotions, attitude or behaviour expected to be managed? Though directly not, we are expected to handle/manage them such that it doesn’t impact our project goals and objectives; influence the people in such a way team is collaborative and working as team in all situations; to nurture the positive team spirit and harness it for high yield.

As we read in 7 Habits of Highly effective People by Stephen R Covey, ‘focus on what is in our control more than what is not in our control’.

Assuming my current team comprises of the people as stated below categories using which we can analyze the possible ways in dealing with such ‘types’. One is not fixed to any particular type – No, there is no stereotype (which should be stricken as an exception) but circumstances make one fall in one of the type enumerated.

1. Leads -#1: Good Subject Knowledge (Functional & Technical) and focuses on Management related stuff

2. Leads- #2: Having good clarity on big picture and good technical knowledge but not aggressive

3. Technical Members-#3: Good Subject Knowledge (Functional & Technical) and focuses only on assigned work

4.   Technical Members-#4: Average Knowledge (Functional & Technical) – passive participation in delivery (They don’t care/worry much about final delivery and they do their work on their own pace irrespective of customer commitment)

5. Technical Members-#5: Self-motivated, aggressive people (Highly ambitious)

6.     Leads- #6: Work based on what manager says (Manager pleasing leads)

What type of skills should be applied with the above type of people in a team?

#1 Direction & Clear Objectives & Goals

• To increase the productivity of the team, we should study the KRAs and encourage the people to work on their strengths
•  Need to define clear KPIs to regain their focus on their core strengths

#2 100% Utilization

• Mostly this type is non-engaged or non-motivated people. We need to understand their goals in life and their interests and help to them to align it with organization needs.

#3 Presentation of the Big Picture

• In most cases due to their lack of visibility this pool of people restrict themselves into what is been assigned to them only and mostly they may be introverts. Therefore we should help them to get better visibility so that we can get the best out of them.

#4 Clear SLAs and Smaller Milestones with Guidance

• We need to guide all along with this type of people for them to achieve their smaller milestones. We need to give them smaller duration milestones to be in the track else they might stray or slip from the path (Project) easily

#5 Challenging work; Raising the Bar

• The ones with energy bursting their seams should be funneled and channeled through challenges by lifting the bar and make the revision of bar progressively upwards. Stretch till they can be stretched. There is a break point and that’s when stretched beyond the endurance.

#6 Enablers of decision and empowerment to function independently

• Once enabled and empowered identified employees should be able to engage with minimal intervention and to a large extent function independently – thereby there is a sense of ownership accounting for any accomplishment or allowance.

The Prized asset: Note that the most performing employee is an asset while the under-performer is a liability. Given the context and limitation, its left to you to manage the situation masterfully.