India Employer Forum

Human Capital

People Management: Are You Being In Charge Or Leading The Way?

  • By: India Employer Forum
  • Date: 11 September 2020

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Under-performing employees have a direct relation with complicated people management. Why always attaching the blame for below par performances on employees is not the right to do? Well, there is a lot more to it than meets the eye.  In most cases, it is the people management skills that are at fault for a decline in employee performance and not the skills of employees themselves.

Organizations find themselves in a difficult situation when they come to know that it’s their leaders that are responsible for not using the right people management strategies for making the most of their employees’ abilities. In several situations, employees are so hurt with their bosses that they don’t want to work with them anymore. But what leads to employees not trusting their managers or supervisors or not willing to give 100% for them? 

You might also be interested to read: The Rise In Demand Of Employee Management Software

It has been found that lots of managers tend to overcomplicate the basic premise of human capital management. What set successful leaders apart from their unsuccessful counterparts are their people management skills. The most common leadership skills that many leaders lack is the skill to let things flow and not over-engineer people management. What leaders need is basic common sense to understand how important it is for them to build trust with their team.

One of the skills of a manager that many managers and leaders don’t really get to grips with is learning the difference between being in charge and leading the way. Employees prefer the latter. They don’t want bosses that make all the rules and want employees to follow them blindly. What they really want are leaders that work collaboratively. They may define the ultimate destination but should work together with their team to draw the path of reaching it. Employees want to be heard and they don’t want their managers to micromanage. 

A leader who is expected to have team management skills can’t be spending most of their time alone. This way, they are doing nothing but complicating their relationship with their team. It is no secret that relationships between managers and their team are crucial to the success of a company. People management is not all about managing employees and evaluating their performance from the outside, it is as important to build relationships. This is the simplest way of bringing people on your side and making them come to terms with how you intend to lead the way.

Employees want to work under leaders who see them as an asset.  When leaders don’t communicate with their team members, they leave a gap that can’t be filled and that is detrimental to the plans of future growth of an organization. When leaders stop being flexible, they directly impact the morale of employees. This is when employees start to leave. They don’t leave their organizations but their managers or supervisors. Managers that understand the importance of keeping the people management process simple are able to stop valuable employees from jumping ship. 

References

  • “Stop Overengineering People Management” | Peter Cappelli | Harvard Business Review | September-October 2020
  • “THE TOP 5 THINGS LEADERS & MANAGERS NEED TO STOP DOING” | Meridith Powell

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