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Creating Success Series
Dealing with Difficult People Roy Lilley
Decision Making and Problem Solving John Adair
Develop Your Leadership Skills John Adair
Develop Your Presentation Skills Theo Theobald
How to Manage People Michael Armstrong
How to Manage Projects Paul J Fielding
How to Organize Yourself John Caunt
How to Write a Business Plan Brian Finch
How to Write a Marketing Plan John Westwood
How to Write Reports and Proposals Patrick Forsyth
Improve Your Communication Skills Alan Barker
Successful Time Management Patrick Forsyth
Taking Minutes of Meetings Joanna Gutmann
The above titles are available from all good bookshops.
For further information on these and other Kogan Page titles, or to order online,
visit www.koganpage.com.

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2161680 - Kogan Page ©
 How to Manage People
Fast, effective management skills that really get results

Michael Armstrong

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CONTENTS
Preface
01 Managing people – what managers do
02 Treat people right
Treat people with respect
Treat people fairly
Create the right work environment
Help people to develop their capabilities and skills
Provide leadership
Get to know team members
Define expectations and ensure they are met
03 Leadership
What leaders do
Leadership styles
What makes a good leader?
How do successful leaders do it?
Types of leaders
The reality of leadership
04 Motivating people
Motivation defined
The process of motivation
Types of motivation
Motivation theories
The key messages of motivation theory
Approaches to motivation
05 Enhancing engagement
Drivers of engagement
What managers can do
06 Organizing people
The process of organizing
Aim
Organizational guidelines
07 Team building

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 What is a team?
What are the factors that contribute to team effectiveness?
How should team performance be assessed?
How should team performance be assessed?
What needs to be done to achieve good teamwork?
08 Delegating
What is delegation?
What are the advantages of delegation?
What are the difficulties of delegation?
Approaches to delegation
09 Defining work
Designing jobs
Developing role profiles
Giving out work
10 Managing performance
Performance management systems
Managing performance without a performance management
system
11 Helping people to learn
How learning happens in the workplace
How managers help people to learn
12 Selection interviewing
The nature of a selection interview
The content of an interview
Preparing for the interview
Planning the interview
Interviewing techniques
Beware of bias
Assessing the data
13 Rewarding people
Reward systems
Approaches to rewarding people
Fixing grades and rates of pay
Reviewing pay
Managing without a reward system

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14 Managing change
The change process
Resistance to change
15 Managing conflict
Handling inter-group conflict
Handling interpersonal conflict
16 Handling people problems
Disciplinary issues
Handling negative behaviour
Dealing with under-performers
Dealing with absenteeism
Handling poor timekeeping
Handling challenging conversations
Appendix: Notes on exercises
References

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PREFACE
The aim of this book is to give practical advice to managers and team leaders on
how to manage the people in their teams – getting the best results from them and
dealing with any problems that may arise.
The book focuses on what front-line managers, ie those directly controlling
teams of people, have to do themselves. A business may have all sorts of
progressive human resource (HR) policies but it is managers who bring them to
life. Many managers have to do their job without HR advice and this book is
particularly designed to meet their needs.
The 17 exercises in this book are designed to test understanding and to explore
issues in greater depth. The appendix contains notes on each exercise.

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01
Managing people – what
managers do
What do managers do? One answer could be: ‘Get results.’ So, the manager of a
retail outlet is expected to meet and indeed exceed sales targets. But to do this they
have, amongst other things, to ensure that high levels of customer satisfaction are
achieved. Think about the following news item and ask yourself what is likely to be
the difference between the managers concerned.

Pause for thought

In 2016, a European gas-station chain hired HappyOrNot, a small Finnish startup, to measure
customer satisfaction at its one hundred and fifty plus outlets. One gas station emerged as the
leader, and another as the distant laggard. But customer satisfaction can be influenced by
factors unrelated to customer service, so, to check, the chain’s executives swapped the managers
at the best and worst performers. Within a short time, the store at the top of the original list was
at the bottom, the store at the bottom was at the top, and one of the managers was looking for
work. (Owen, 2018)

There could be any number of reasons for the difference but the major factor is
most likely to be the ways in which the respective managers managed their teams.
This is because, essentially, the role of managers is to get things done through
people. To do this they:
see that the members of their teams understand what they are expected to
do and then ensure that they do it;
ensure that people with the right skills are in the right jobs and that they
perform well in exercising their skills in those jobs;
exercise leadership;
motivate their staff;
treat people right – that is, fairly and with respect and consideration;
deal effectively with the problems that inevitably arise in managing people.

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 Pause for thought
Management and leadership compared
Are management and leadership the same or different? Some commentators claim that
leadership is the same as management, others see them as distinct but closely linked and just as
necessary activities, and others consider management a subset of leadership.
Here are the views of some well-known writers:

‘Managers promote efficiency, follow the rules and accept the status quo, while leaders
focus on challenging the rules and promoting effectiveness.’ (Bennis, 1989)
‘Managers plan, budget, organize and control, while leaders set direction, manage change
and motivate people.’ (Kotter, 1991)
‘Management merely consists of leadership applied to business situations.’ (Hersey and
Blanchard, 1998)
What do you think?

But whether you are managing or leading or both, it can be hard. There are the
pressing demands from above to deliver results. Managers carry out their work on
a day-to-day basis in conditions of turbulence and variety. It may not be clear what
they are expected to do or how they are expected to do it. They have to be
specialists in ambiguity. Unexpected events ambush them – stuff happens.
Decisions lead to unforeseen consequences. And they spend a lot of their time
dealing with people who can be difficult, unpredictable or uncooperative.

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 Pause for thought
Qualities required by managers
Research by The Commission on the Future of Management and Leadership in 2014 produced
the following list of the top 10 characteristics that managers need:

1. Clear sense of purpose.

2. Strong values and personal integrity.
3. Commitment to developing others through coaching and mentoring.
4. Champion of diversity.
5. Ability to engage and communicate across all levels.
6. Self-awareness and taking time to reflect.
7. Collaborative, networked and non-hierarchical.
8. Agile and innovative, technologically curious and savvy.
9. Personal resilience and grit.
10. Excellent track record of delivery.
Rate yourself from 0 (useless) to 10 (superb) for each of these characteristics.

Perhaps it is the managing people aspect of a manager’s work that provides the
greatest challenge. How can line managers ensure that their team members are
‘on board’ and stay on board? How do they get willing cooperation rather than
grudging submission? These and other questions will be addressed in later
chapters of this book but one approach to dealing with them is given below.

Words of wisdom
‘As a manager, I try frequently to reinforce with my team members that they are setting
standards for themselves and then to initiate open discussion of what those standards
may be, encouraging the team to reflect on both strengths and weaknesses.’ (Brinker,
2017)

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Pause for thought
‘The manager’s’ effectiveness is significantly influenced by their insight into their own
work. Performance depends on how well a manager understands and responds to the
pressures and dilemmas of the job. Thus managers who can be introspective about
their work are likely to be effective at their jobs.’ (Mintzberg, 1990)
Reflect on your own strengths and weaknesses as revealed by your analysis in the previous
Pause for Thought. To what extent do these impact on how you manage people? Are there any
particular aspects of managing people in which you think you can improve? If so, study the
relevant chapter(s) in this book and see what you can learn.

Exercise 1.1
The line manager’s role
Conduct an investigation to establish the most typical features of a line manager’s role. The
investigation can be carried out by reviewing your own work if you are a manager or a team leader
and over three or four days analysing what you do under such headings as:

planning ahead;
communicating with superiors, colleagues or customers;
organizing the work;
making decisions;
dealing with members of your team, eg giving instructions, reviewing performance, training
or handling grievances, personal problems or problems of performance or discipline.
If you are not a manager try to get your own line manager to do this analysis for their job. When
you have completed the analysis consider what it tells you about the manager’s role.

Summary points
Managers:

get things done through people;

have to treat people right – that is, fairly and with respect and consideration;
have to exercise leadership, motivate their staff and enhance their engagement.

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02
Treat people right
Treating people right means treating them fairly and with respect. But it is not
about going soft on them. It is necessary to be firm as well as fair, to set standards
and to ensure that they are met. Ed Lawler, a leading American management
expert, wrote that ‘treating people right is a fundamental key to creating
organizational effectiveness’. He also noted that the concept of treating people
right recognizes the fact that ‘Both organizations and individuals need to succeed.
One cannot succeed without the other’ (Lawler, 2003).
The seven principles of treating people right are:
1. Treat people with respect.
2. Treat people fairly.
3. Create the right work environment.
4. Help people to develop their capabilities and skills.
5. Provide leadership.
6. Get to know team members.
7. Define expectations and ensure they are met.

Words of wisdom
‘In this new era, people need to be treated and respected as precious human capital,
more essential to an organization’s effectiveness than its financial capital. People can
now be the primary source of a company’s competitive advantage in most businesses.
To put it bluntly, how people are treated increasingly determines whether a company
will prosper or even survive.’ (Lawler, 2003)

Treat people with respect

To respect someone is to recognize a person’s qualities and their rights to self-
esteem, privacy and autonomy. It also means ensuring that they feel valued and
are treated with dignity and courtesy – no belittling, no bullying.
It involves being sensitive to the differences between people, taking this
diversity into account in any dealings with them. It involves honouring their

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contribution and listening to what they have to say. It also means recognizing that
people may have legitimate grievances and responding to them promptly, fully
and sympathetically.
You need to treat people with respect but you also need to earn that respect.

Words of wisdom
‘Respect is necessary to work with people. By “people” we mean employees, supply
partners and customers… We don’t mean just the end customer; on the assembly line
the person at the next workstation is also your customer.’ (Katsuaki Watanabe, Toyota
CEO; from Stewart and Raman, 2007)

Pause for thought

What do you have to do to earn people’s respect?

Treat people fairly

Treating people fairly involves being even-handed and dealing with them justly,
consistently, with consideration and without bias. To be unfair to someone is to
deal with them less favourably than others or treat them arbitrarily without
considering their needs. Fairness is associated with what is known as procedural
justice, which is concerned with the perceptions employees have about how they
are treated and the fairness with which company policies are put into practice.

Words of wisdom
The five factors that affect perceptions of procedural justice:

1. The viewpoint of employees is given proper consideration.

2. Personal bias towards employees is suppressed.
3. The criteria for decisions are applied consistently to all employees.
4. Employees are provided with early feedback about the outcome of decisions.
5. Employees are provided with adequate explanations of why decisions have been made.
(Tyler and Bies, 1990)

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 Pause for thought
How should you treat people fairly?

Create the right work environment

People should feel that their work is worthwhile. Their jobs should make good use
of their skills and abilities and as far as possible provide some autonomy so that
they have a reasonable degree of control over their activities and decisions.
Employees also need feedback – information about how well they are doing,
preferably obtained for themselves from their work rather than from their
manager. As described in Chapter 3, these are all factors that, if they are present in
jobs, will increase intrinsic motivation – motivation from the work itself. They can
be considerably influenced by the ways in which work is organized – the design of
the work system.
The fundamental requirement is for the work system to operate efficiently and
flexibly. It is necessary to provide for the smooth flow of processes and activities
and ensure that resources – people, materials, plant, equipment and money – are
used effectively. But in designing or managing a work system it is also necessary to
consider what needs to be done to treat people right. The system should enable
employees to gain fulfilment from their work by, as far as possible, allowing scope
for variety, challenge and autonomy. It should provide a good environment in
terms of working conditions and a healthy and safe system of work, bearing in
mind the need to minimize stress and pay attention to ergonomic considerations in
the design of equipment and work stations.

Help people to develop their capabilities and skills

It is in your own interest and that of your organization to enhance the skills and
capabilities of the people you manage through coaching, training and, importantly,
giving them scope to learn or develop skills by providing new work opportunities
or challenges. In doing so you will be ‘treating them right’. They will be equipped
with the means to gain greater fulfilment from their work by achieving more in
their existing jobs and by obtaining the experience and skills that will further their
careers.
Furthering development means noticing when formal training experiences or
opportunities for on-the-job training can help someone. You should give your
people time and space to learn new skills. Your role as a coach is particularly
important. Every time you give somebody a new task to do you are creating a
learning opportunity.

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Provide leadership
Leadership is about treating people right by giving them a sense of direction and
by providing support when necessary. Effective leadership means that people
know where they are going and are guided on how to get there.

Get to know team members

You can’t treat individual members of your team right unless you get to know
them. You need to know their strengths and weaknesses, their ambitions and their
concerns about work. Performance management systems that provide for regular
review meetings between managers and their staff can help to do this. But it
should be an everyday affair. The more you are in contact with your people the
better you will get to know them. It’s no good hiding in your office or behind a
desk. You have to get out and talk to people. It’s called management by walking
about. It’s one of the best ways of building good relationships. A survey of Google
employees established that the managers they valued most were even-keeled
bosses who made time for one-on-one meetings, who helped people puzzle through
problems by asking questions, not dictating answers, and who took an interest in
employees’ lives and careers (Bryant, 2011).

Define expectations and ensure they are met

You treat people right when you make sure that they understand and accept what
is expected of them – standards of performance and behaviour. You need to clarify
roles, what has to be achieved and how it is to be achieved. And this should be a
matter for mutual agreement. You are not there as a manager simply to order
people around. You want willing cooperation, not grudging submission.
But you have to ensure that the standards are met. If they are not, this is when
you need to be firm. Treating people right is not about being soft with them. It is
right to take a firm line if someone under-performs without good reason or
misbehaves.

Exercise 2.1
Treating people right
Think of any examples from your own experience where you believe that you were treated unfairly
by your manager. If you can recall any, consider the circumstances and explain how you think the
situation should have been dealt with.

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Summary points
Treating people right means treating them fairly and with respect, amongst other things.
But it is not about going soft on them. It is necessary to be firm as well as fair.
The seven principles of treating people right are:

1. Treat people fairly.

2. Treat people with respect.
3. Create the right work environment.
4. Help people to develop their capabilities and skills.
5. Provide leadership.
6. Get to know team members.
7. Define expectations and ensure they are met.

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