What Is Your Relationship With Your Employees?
I can’t believe a month has already passed. I’ve been busy with several new projects, along with the holidays, so all my regular projects were put on the side during this time.
Yet, I didn’t forget you. So today’s topic is a perfect way to jump back into writing again.
What is your relationship with your employees? Is it collaborative or adversarial? Why not start the new year off by reviewing your interactions with the people in your group.
- What is your attitude about each member of your team?
- Do you treat people differently?
- Are your curious about what motivates a person?
- Do you give orders or listen to what an employee has to say?
- Are your unsure on how best to direct your employees?
In order to manage employees effectively, you need to continue to evaluate what you are doing. Everyone has his or her particular style of management and it’s important to express our uniqueness. What I’m addressing now is the tone you set in interacting with your employees.
I’ve chosen two extreme words to highlight my thoughts.
–Adversary – a person, group, or force that opposes or attacks; opponent; enemy; foe.
When I say adversarial, it’s more about our resistance to our employees and our need to control their behaviors.
–Collaborative – To work together, especially in a joint intellectual effort.
Most of us use both forms to relate to others. Yet, we will tend to rely more often on an adversarial or collaborative model in our interactions.
I’m more a collaborative type of manager and feel comfortable allowing others to participate in the creation of a department. If I swing too much towards the collaborative model, my employees aren’t receiving clear direction from me. Sometimes I swing too much to the other direction, and become frustrated, opinionated or feel the employees are not doing their work. In my frustration, I take a different stance with employees. It’s one of distrust and the employees feel that energy quickly. I’m not a manic manager, rather a learning manager who takes the time to evaluate my behaviors and decide how I want to manage.
What about you…how do you want to manage your employees? What type of relationship do you have with them and what type do you want to create? Your relationship with your team members affects everyone’s productivity.
Management is about learning the basic skills of managing employees, recognizing and valuing our particular style, and continuously fine-tuning our interactions. If you are willing to take the time to become aware of your thoughts and behaviors, you will find that managing employees becomes easier.
There are many ways to learn how to manage employees, though I believe that we each know when we are comfortable with our interactions and when we are not. In our hurried, busy world, we believe we just don’t have the time to stop and listen to ourselves.
When we stop and listen we have access to the goldmine within each of us…we have the vein of truth we need to be great managers. As we become more aware of our interactions, we can direct our efforts towards the appropriate information we need to build our skills.
So today, listen to yourself when you interact with your employees. No judgment here, just listen and see what you hear. Use that information to make whatever changes you want to become stronger in managing employees.
Pat
Next Topic
Should You Take What An Employee Does Personally?
Other Topics
Creating Employee Goals
3 Different Types of Employee Goals
Tips For Effective Performance Reviews
That Time of The Year Again – Performance Reviews
