Common Business Challenges > How do I manage my people?

How do I manage my people?

FIVE Steps for Effective Management

How do I manage my people ? Great question!

The word manage comes from the Latin word manus for hand - essentially the word’s roots are “to handle” or “to control”. Given that the only person you really can “control” is yourself, how on earth can anyone manage any one else?

Most business owners haven’t a clue how to manage people. To begin with, they hire employees they “like”. How many times have we heard; “I just had a good gut feeling about that guy?” Then, several months later the guy leaves to start their own business.

Rarely is there any documentation for training a new employee to accomplish what is expected of them. Most business owners have the new hire “shadow” an existing employee to see what needs to get done. There are no check-ins or follow up meetings to see how well the new employee is doing. There are few, if any Management Systems in place.

And that’s the answer - a series of management systems. These systems include a process whereby new and existing employees understand what is expected of them and a process to monitor them in their bid to meet these expectations. Additionally, the systems include tools, training and feed back to support their success as well as clear guidelines on how they manage themselves and communicate with others within the organization.

We have found that Management Systems are similar from one company to another. A simple “tweak” to a generic Recruiting & Hiring System, for example, can provide instant relief to your hiring and management needs. Effective Meeting Guidelines, Problem Resolution Systems; Performance Evaluation -- these are all systems, in our systems library and available to our clients, and they can quickly and easily be edited to work for you.

What follows are the five key steps to getting and keeping great employees. A tool like TouchStone used with our existing library of systems, facilitates the creation and on-going implementation of these systems.

  1. Recruiting & Hiring
  2. Training
  3. Performance Evaluation
  4. Effective Meetings
  5. Clear Communication Guidelines – A Management Philosophy

1. Recruiting & Hiring

Recruiting the right person for the job is the best first step. Having a “Recruiting & Hiring System” – a method whereby you get the right person for both the position as well as the culture of your company often means new recruits are loyal and longer lasting. And, when you get the right person, you will have fewer management issues. In other words, all of the time and energy spent training the new employee to do the job to your expectations, step #2 below, won’t be wasted. Here’s what you need to know:

Are there jobs that need to be done in your company that you don’t like doing? Does this mean nobody likes doing those jobs? The answer is NO. The truth is, there is someone out there that likes doing those jobs, but chances are they aren’t going to be like you! So what will you get if you hire someone like you? Someone who won’t like their job. If you clearly understand the tasks of the job, you can hire for the right person. And don’t go selling the job on something that it is not. Someone out there is interested and willing to do whatever it is that you need being done.

If you know what needs to be done, you can determine the skills someone would need in order to do those tasks. These are the skills you will look for and acknowledge during the interview process.

There may be some behavioral or technical skills that are a must and others that would be beneficial. If you clearly understand the two categories, and the candidate’s characteristics are documented during the interview process, you’ll know what skills need attention and mentoring during their training and development period.

How long do you think a middle aged, ex-middle manager will last in a company of rowdy 25 year olds? Understand your company’s culture and keep it consistent. Just because you have a culture of rowdy 25 year olds doesn’t mean there is no such thing as a manager who can manage these types.

Locating the best candidates is like advertising for new clients. It’s all about Marketing – getting the right message through the right channels. Treat your future candidates as if they are prospects. Your future candidate follows very specific channels to find the job they want – anything and everything from the internet to a head hunter. Chances are, for example, that you’ll find the middle aged, ex-middle manager from a head hunter and a rowdy 25 year old through the internet.

With a documented Recruiting and Hiring System, you’ll not only get longer lasting, loyal employees, but you’ll also no longer be handcuffed by the possibility of a good employee leaving. If someone leaves, you’ll have an effective method for getting someone else hired and up-to-speed quickly and efficiently.

2. Training:

The most often sited reason for an employee quitting or being fired is lack of knowledge - they didn’t know what was expected of them and if they did, they didn’t know how to achieve those expectations or have the tools and training to succeed. If you’ve done your homework well in Step #1 above, you’ll not only have a clear understanding of the tasks required of the new employee, but you’ll also have found someone with the necessary skill set to be able to succeed at those tasks. Now it’s important to provide the “tools” required to do the job well – documented systems.

Documented Systems are training tools. They are available to teach the new employee the steps in performing a specific task and they describe what the expected outcome or quantification is of the task being performed. Systems come in many shapes and sizes:

They can be complex and many pages in length. Or they can be short and simple. They are rarely used once the specific task is mastered. There is no longer a need unless the expected results are no longer being achieved, in which case, either the system is no longer working or the employee is not working the system.

3. Performance Evaluation:

More often than not, employees are not sure how well they are performing their job. The boss might offer “Great job!” from time to time, but do they really mean it and does the boss really know what’s going on?

A performance evaluation should be an evaluation of exactly what is required of the employee – an evaluation of how well they are performing on the tasks clearly outlined in their position description.

During the hiring process, we encourage the employee to review and sign a document that lists the tasks and expectations of the position they are preparing to fill. This “Job Description” is referenced frequently through out the year. For example, discussions can follow between the employee and their manager about what might be on the job description that they are rarely doing, or what they are often doing that isn’t on the description. The document is kept stable yet dynamic.

4. One on One Management Meetings:

The simplest method for keeping tabs on an employee and eliminate the wasted time from constant interruptions, is to have a consistent management meeting strategy. Meetings need to be effective, well structured and recurring on a consistent basis. Depending on the company and the number of employees a manager manages, we might recommend weekly one hour one-on-one meetings. The purpose of the meeting is to coach mentor and train, set goals and hold the employees accountable to those goals. It’s also a place where you can check in with them and they can check in with you. How are they doing in their job? Are there any problems you need to hear about? Meeting guidelines help, (have Meeting Guidelines be a hyper link the Meeting Guidelines document). Meetings need to start on time, end on time, have a specific agenda, have a action items documented and communicated and followed up.

5. A Management Philosophy:

Clear and concise communication is a necessary component in a thriving organization. For someone to be accountable for a task or action it’s important they understand what it is they need to do, what is expected, how much time they have to get the necessary results and they need to be sure they are up to and able to meet the challenge. In other words, they need to agree that they can get it done. If they can’t agree to the task, how can you hold them accountable to getting it done. On the other hand, if they agree to the conditions, then you should be able to count on the task being completed on schedule.

What we are talking about is called “Management by Agreement”. For longer and more complex projects consider creating a Task Delegation Form that clearly details the steps required to complete the project as well as the expected time frame and anticipated results. You can have the employee sign the form indicating they clearly understand what you are asking of them and when it needs to be completed. Implement Feed Back Loops or intermediary steps during the project where you can get a progress update making sure the project is on the right track.

Task Delegation System for complex tasks and projects with feed back reporting loops.

Problem Resolution Process