Managing Employees

In today’s business environment, managing employees is one of the many responsibilities a manager needs to handle during the day.  Though deciding to do your best in developing and supporting your employees will make a big difference in their  productivity as well as your own.   How you manage your employees affects your overall performance.  So how do you give your best when there is too much to do? 

Here are some ideas to help you decide what is important.

• Are you clear on what you and your team are required to accomplish?  If not, take the time to rectify that.
• You need to know what still needs to be done?  Part of our stress is not knowing all the moving parts.   Gather a list of what is completed and what still needs to be done.
• You now have a list of what needs to be done.  This is the time to ask “why” something is important.  Systems develop and not everything is still important to do. 
• Since you and your employees can each only do one thing at a time, there will always be too much to do.   This is what management is all about…to prioritize and decide what is most important. 
• You influence your employees more by communicating face-to-face rather than email.  For virtual employees, call them.  Email is so impersonal and your goal is to build a relationship with your team members.   If you have hundreds of employees under you, train the supervisors to build relationships with their direct reports.  Limit your email use with employees.  
• If you can’t meet regularly with each member of your team, have senior members become mentors or “buddies” to junior staff.  Encourage everyone to get up and speak to others rather than emailing.  
• You have to be ruthless about your time.   Track your time – where are you spending it…in lengthy meetings or email.   These are your time robbers and you need to figure out a way to diminish those activities.    If email is your time robber, get someone else to pre-read and handle most of your email, have your email automatically filed in it’s appropriate category so you can read when you are ready, or have a separate email address for customers and employees and address what’s important first. 
• Delegate…Delegate…Delegate!   Bring in an intern or two to handle the routine functions of your job or your department.  Your team can also be freed up to handle their “to do” list.   Have someone attend a meeting for you and report back.  Take the time to brainstorm on all the activities that you can hand over to others and then find solutions to do just that. 
• Not all companies recognize that a manager needs to develop their management skills on a regular basis.  Schedule some learning time for yourself.

Final Thought

There is usually one overall focus for any company…to provide a service or a product and build strong and lasting relationships with the customers.  Your employees service those customers.  Since it’s known already that a key component of an employee’s success is their relationship with the manager, it’s important to focus your attention on them.   

Start today…start with something small such as sending one less email to an employee and instead speaking directly to them.

Next Topic

Create a “Learning” Plan

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The Experts Guide To Managing Your Time Solve All Your Time Management Woes. 27 Top Experts Spill Their Secrets, Covering Procrastination, Prioritizing, Scheduling, Organizing, Clutter, Work Life Balance, Efficiency, Productivity, Waste, Wastage, To Do List,todo, Tips, Techniques And Tricks.

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Have you found when managing your employees that they bring different levels of self-confidence to their work?  We know that the more confidence an individual possesses the more efficient and productive they can be in meeting their goals. If you view your role in managing employees as a mutual working relationship, then you would want to be part of nourishing their confidence.

I would suggest the following important points to use as a guide in providing support and guidance in increasing your employees “confidence muscles.”

• Listen for your employee’s current level of confidence as it may change given the specific project they are working on.  Each person brings their personal beliefs about their capabilities to the job.  As you monitor their level of performance, you can observe how they handle different situations.  In managing employees, you have so many opportunities to be part of their success. 
• Accentuate the Positive – If there is one booster that increases an employee’s confidence it’s focusing on their knowledge, skills or past contributions.  Managing employees by their strengths build their confidence and in turn, adds more to the overall success of the department.  Encourage your employees to acknowledge their contributions to the team.  Try to use the 80-20 rule…spend 80% of your time with an employee addressing their strengths and 20% helping them handle any issues that are hampering their performance.  Why…because you receive the most value from their strengths. 
• Set clear direction and expectations around performance so your team members know what is expected.  The clearer they are about what they need to do, the more confident they will be in implementing their work.
• Train – give employees the chance to succeed by providing training.   Even if you hire talent with experience, they still need to learn.
• Plan – help your employees create and stay focused on their goals.  Their planning skills should cover yearly, quarterly, monthly and daily.   Each day they need to stay focus on what is important and not get swayed by interruptions and reactivity.  
• Proactive – encourage your team members to be active in increasing their level of confidence.   Some ways are to take on new projects, reading business or industry information, and CDs and lectures on building self-confidence. 
• Recognition – take the time to recognize an employee who has done excellent work.   This spot acknowledgement adds to the employee’s confidence and they will continue to perform.  Don’t assume they know that their work was great…tell them. 
• Encourage your employees to take risks…either by making suggestions or trying something different.   
• Follow up on a regular basis with your employees.  It would be great if you could meet monthly, but at least on a quarterly basis.  

Final Thought

Start the whole process over by listening.  Your ability to listen will boost your own level of confidence as well as the confidence of your employees.
 

Next Topic
There is Too Much To Do

Pat

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Brian Tracy speaks to corporate and public audiences on the subjects of Personal and Professional Development, including the executives and staff of many of America’s largest corporations.  I have purchased several of his CDs and have found that he presents the information in a clear, systematic and informative manner.  “The Science of Self-Confidence” is great to purchase for yourself and your employees.   Bring the tools in house so that employees can focus on building their confidence.
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Unless you have been working alone all your life you quickly realize that not all people get along with each other.   In managing employees, you will have the opportunity to run interference between two employees who are in conflict with each other.  There are endless reasons why people challenge each other, and you are required to develop conflict resolution skills in order to diminish internal squabbling.  We can’t make everyone look and act the same but we can help employees learn to deal with differences in the workplace.

If the issue is performance related such as not providing a co-worker with the right information, then you will need to handle this differently.   The type of issues addressed here is not performance related, but rather different styles in performing work and interacting with each other.
 

Examples of workplace issues

• Employees interrupting others while they are concentrating on a project.   People have different work styles…some need to interact more; others need to focus all of their attention on what they are doing.   This is a common issue within the workplace.
• Competitive issues where employees will try to undermine other’s performance.
• Physical space - each person has different comfort levels around mess.   In a cubicle, there are “neatniks” and “messies,” and those styles irritate each other. 
• Food in the cubicle….some people are sensitive to different smells.
• Borrowing other’s supplies, without asking.
• Playing music – employees like different types of music.

…and many more irritations that employees struggle with that reduce productivity in the workplace.

What are your employee’s responsibilities?
Employees have the right to work in an environment that enhances their productivity.   At the same time, employees need to recognize that they will not get along with everyone and can learn how to solve their problems.  They can’t just come with the complaint and expect you to solve the issue for them.  

There are numerous solutions to the same problem.   For example, what if someone plays music in the cubicle and it interferes with an employee’s ability to concentrate on their work.

• Handle the situation as soon as it surfaces as an issue for them.  The longer they wait, the more frustrated they will become, and their emotions will block their ability to resolve the issue.
• They can present the issue to the other person in the “I” format.  I have difficulty concentrating when the music is on.  Maybe music helps you think but it breaks my concentration.  How can we resolve this issue since we are both in the same cubicle?
• Ask if they can use “headphones” to listen to their music.
• If they are reluctant to speak to the other person, if possible, they can take their work to an open cubicle or the cafeteria.
• They can ask to swap cubicle with others whose style of working is more complimentary to them.
• Speak with the manager.

What can you do!
Employees may have to work with others they don’t like…how can you help them understand their role in the dynamics and help them build their problem-solving skills.

You can’t control every situation but you can be proactive in helping co-workers get along.   Create some “getting along” policies.  Open workspace is common now and employees on more on top of each other.  Most conflict occurs because of misunderstandings and assumptions about the other person’s intentions.  Providing employees with guidelines or etiquette in working together helps minimize many smaller workplace issues.   Create a small committee to come up with some common issues and how to deal with them in the workplace.

When managing employees, it is helpful to understand how each of your team members deals with conflict.  Here again each person has different comfort zones and the more you know about the individual employee, the more you can support them in resolving their workplace issues.  It’s important to handle issues between co-workers quickly because the longer you wait the more embedded the issue will become and the more difficult it is for employees to change their opinions.  

Final Note
Workplace respect is the responsibility of both you and your employees.  Your role is to provide guidelines and standards for the work environment.  Even with the best intentions, individuals don’t get along and your role is to help them find solutions to their workplace issues.  Strong management skills include the ability to handle conflict within your teams.  Check out this book: 

How To Reduce Workplace Conflict And Stress: How Leaders And Their Employees Can Protect Their Sanity And Productivity From Tension And Turf Wars by Anna Maravelas.  Managing employees means also managing conflict that surface between different people.   This book provides many workplace conflict examples as well as helps you navigate the daily frustrations that employees present to you.

Next Topic
Help Your Employee Build Their “Confidence Muscles”

Pat

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The Experts Guide To Managing Your Time Solve All Your Time Management Woes. 27 Top Experts Spill Their Secrets, Covering Procrastination, Prioritizing, Scheduling, Organizing, Clutter, Work Life Balance, Efficiency, Productivity,To Do List, Tips, Techniques And Tricks.

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It doesn’t take long for a manager to bump into an employee with an “attitude.”  Evaluating an employee as having an “attitude” also depends on what bothers a manager, as the same behavior may be just fine with another manager. Yet, there are certain behaviors that the employee exhibits that affect the working environment.  So how do you, the manager handle this behavior in the most effective way?

Challenging Behaviors

• The employee is constantly socializing 
• He/She is rude or inconsiderate to others
• If you ask them to handle something additional to their normal responsibilities, they are resistant or upset.
• Complains about the company or the job
• Sloppy performance
• Rolls their eyes or sighs when you or another person is speaking in your group.
• Chronic lateness
• Annoyed with the customers
• Knows it all…is not open to input by you
• Is defensive

Create Clarity around the Issue

First, ask yourself how the behavior affects the business.  For example, even if the employee is performing, chronic complaining affects you, co-workers and potentially customers.  What you need to do is list the behavior, when the employee engages in it, and how it affects the business.  When managing your employees, you have to provide specific information to the employee, otherwise, they don’t understand their behavior and how it affects the business. 

How comfortable are you with perceived confrontation.   Some managers are not willing to address the issue because they fear the discussion will demotivate the employee, don’t know how to approach the subject or the employee will leave and the manager is left with unfinished work.   If you are a manager that feels uncomfortable with speaking to your employees about their behavior, take the time to find a solution to this issue.

Note:  If the behavior elicited by the employee is new, then you need to handle this differently.   Usually new behavior indicates a change in the employee’s life or a change in the work environment.   This is different then an employee who has a habit of negative behavior.   Though in both cases, your goal is to understand and orchestrate the change in behavior.

Handling the Problem Behavior

• Create a list of situations where you have noticed inappropriate behavior by the employee.  This is so you can understand better how to deal with the situation.
• If the employee has several behaviors that need to change, I would be selective and choose the most important issue.  If you present several issues at once, it is too overwhelming and the likelihood is nothing will change.
• You need to be specific about the actual behavior because stating to the employee he/she has to change their “attitude” accomplishes nothing…they don’t have tangible examples in order to change.
• Present the issue as this is a problem for me and I need your support in creating a solution.    It’s a different way to approach the situation, one that elicits the employee’s help in the solution.
• If the employee becomes defensive, simply restate the issue.  Here is where you need to exhibit calmness and clarity.   If the employee continues to be defensive, then clearly state that this behavior has to change and you are willing to work with the employee to help them find a solution.
• Find a way to allow the employee to take responsibility for the solution.  If they don’t, it is likely that this issue will not be resolved.  Brainstorm on how they can change the behavior, but always keep the desired behavior as the goal.
• If this is the first time you are discussing the issue with the employee, create notes for your files.   If the behavior persists, then you will need to create a behavior improvement plan and formalize the process.  
• Always schedule a follow up meeting within a short period (no more than a few weeks).  If the employee has altered their behavior, I suggest you have one more meeting to insure that they are consistent.  If their behavior has not changed, then you need to put in place a formal improvement plan.

Final Note

Most employees want to perform well and behave in appropriate ways.    In managing employees, your focus is to set the standards and support them in meeting those standards.  Their job is to meet or exceed the standards.

Next Topic
How to Help Your Employee Handle Issues With Co-Workers

Pat

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21 Great Ways to Become an Outstanding Manager   by Brian Tracy
With this valuable step-by-step program, you will learn how to:
• Lead your team to maximum results - so you can stand out above the rest
• Keep your team happy and motivated
• Maximize your natural leadership capabilities
• Build a team to take you to the top
• Make your profits soar
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We have limited time these days and so much to do.  That’s why it’s important to know who you are…how you best learn.  This information about yourself helps you gather the right resources to build your knowledge base in business.  Managers need to learn how to manage their employees.  The amount of information available is endless and knowing how to absorb information will help you build you knowledge quickly.