People Management Skills

People – An Indispensable Asset

 According to Joseph Vittoria, Chairman & CEO,
Avis Inc. “The most important asset a manager
has is People”.
“You have to have good people around you.
Everything else you can buy or lease!”

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 People – An Indispensable Asset
 No matter how well-educated and capable
you are, if you cannot get along with other
people, you will not make it.
 Most managers failed more due to “lack of
People Skills” and not because of technical
skills.

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 Why People Management Skills?
 In work we deal with Customers, Bosses,
Colleagues and Subordinates. Good and
effective people skills are essential in our
inter-personal relations.
 Understanding people and their behavior will
provide guidance on how to handle each
situation.

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 Defining People Management

“the utilization of human resources in order

to achieve the objectives of the
organization”

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 Functions of Management
 Traditionally, the term "management" refers
to the activities (and often the group of
people) involved in the four general functions
listed below.
– 1. Planning,
– 2. Organizing,
– 3. Leading and
– 4. Controlling

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 Causes of Failures and Success in Dealing
with People

 Managing a successful organization – requires

ongoing leadership and management,
planning, coordination of different activities.
 For this to happen there needs to effective
management of the most challenging aspect
of the organization which is people.

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 Causes of Failures and Success in Dealing
with People

 People have the ability to think independently,

feel and express emotions, question issues
and they have elements that make them
special.
 However, these are also the very factors that
might make it difficult for managers to
manage people.

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 Causes of Failures and Success in Dealing
with People

 The success and failure factors of managing

people are extremely difficult.
 It depends on the different people within the
organization, the nature of projects, how
people relate to each other and the leadership
style of the organization.

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 The Major Causes of People Management
Failures

1. Lack of political / top management

commitment and support to people
development
2. Leadership skills and styles
3. Lack of Human Resources planning, skills,
knowledge and experience
4. Financial management/ Financial constraints
5. Poor reward
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 The Major Causes of People Management
Failures

6. Information and communication

7. Organisational culture, commitment, passion
for work, work culture and ethics, power
struggles and politics
8. High rate of staff resignations
9. Lack of motivation and job satisfaction
10.Difficult stakeholders: unions, community
11.Policy changes
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 Roles of Managing People

 Leadership
 Supervise and delegate
 Motivate
 Performance Management System: Reward
 Manage Conflict
 Hire the right people
 Manage various types of employees

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 Effective Management of People

 Effective management of people is the "life's

blood" of an organization.
 Organizations that are highly successful have a
strong leadership element. One of the first
signs that an organization is struggling is that
the organisation has failed to hire the right
people.

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 Effective Management of People

 If the right people are hired then the

organization should be able to retain them by
being able to motivate, manage conflict and
different types of employees, have good
supervision and delegation skills and finally be
able to reward and acknowledge good
performance.

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 Leadership
 We all have the development of ‘ordinary’
human beings into leaders differently.
 Our understanding of how leaders are and the
experiences we have had with leaders say a
lot about the way we define leaders, their
leadership styles and their qualities.

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 Leadership Definitions
 Leadership is a process that takes place in groups in
which one member influences and controls the
behavior of the other members toward some
common goal."
 “The ability to lead, including inspiring others and in
a shared vision. Leaders have clear visions and they
communicate these visions to their employees. ...”
Michener, DeLamater and Schwartz(1990)in
(Denmark, 1993, p.343)

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 Leadership
 Has nothing to do with position or managing
people
 Is the basis of innovative change
 Can shift rapidly from one person to another
 Cannot be monopolized. It has nothing to do
with climbing a hierarchy
 Changes how people think

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 Team Leadership
 Today, organizations recognize the role of
teams, but it still takes leadership to transform
a group into a team.
 To be an effective and efficient manager one
needs to have certain skills, for example
delegation, supervision, communication skills:
conflict management, running of meetings and
the ability to motivate and reward team
members and or employees.
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 Supervision
 A manager is tasked with the responsibility of
supervision would hence be expected to
develop the capacity of staff members so that
they can perform tasks effectively, think
independently, and find solutions to their
problems.

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 Supervision
 Team members will ultimately become less
reliant on the manager.
 Instead, they have the opportunity and the
skills to creatively generate ideas and
implement activities independently.
 In this way, employees take more
responsibility for their own developmental
process.

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 Your Role as a Supervisor
 Ensure that team members understand their
responsibilities.
 Co-develop clear and specific expected
outcomes with each team member.
 Ensure that the team members possess the
skills and knowledge to perform their activities
effectively and efficiently.

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 Your Role as a Supervisor
 Review jointly the team member’s
performance against her/his outputs.
 Assess how strengths/successes can be
enhanced and weaknesses/problems
overcome.
 Develop a clear way forward and/or adjust
activities to improve project implementation.

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 Delegation
 The ability to delegate effectively is one of the
most important supervision skills required of a
manager.
 Many managers want to remain comfortable,
making the same decisions they have always
made.

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 Delegation
 They believe they can do a better job
themselves. They don't want to risk losing any
of their power and control (ironically, they do
lose these if they don't learn to delegate
effectively).
 Often, they don't want to risk giving authority
to subordinates.

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 Delegation Tips
 Remember, you are not the only one that can
accomplish an end result. Trust others to be
capable of achieving it.
 Break large jobs into manageable pieces and
delegate pieces to those who can do them
more readily.

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 Delegation Tips
 Keep following up and following through until
the entire project is done.
 Resist the urge to solve someone else's
problem. They need to learn for themselves.
Give them suggestions and perhaps limits but
let them take their own action.

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 Feedback Skills
 Feedback may have several purposes – it may
be information that expands a person’s
information about themselves and the effect
they have on others; it may expand the
person’s range of choices; and it may be
intended to support or discourage certain
behaviour.

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Feedback is Likely to be More Effective if

 The person receiving it acknowledges the

need for it
 It is timely; given near the time the behaviour
has occurred
 It is skilful
 Only give feedback if you consider the
outcome to be developmental to both parties

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 Team Development
Teams Versus Groups
 Most people use the words team and group
interchangeably, but there are actually a number of
differences between a team and a group in real
world applications.
 Teams differ from other type of groups in that
members are focused on a joint goal or product, such
as a presentation, completing in-class exercises,
taking notes, discussing a topic, writing a report, or
creating starting a project.
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 Definitions of Team
 "A team is a small number of people with
complementary skills who are committed to a
common purpose, performance goals, and
approach for which they are mutually
accountable." (Katzenbach and Smith, 1993)
 "A team is a group in which members work
together intensively to achieve a common
group goal." (Lewis-McClear & Taylor 1998)

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 Effective Team Members Need The
Following Three Basic Skills

1. Communication and Negotiation

2. Analytic and Creative Skills
3. Organizational skills

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 Team Dynamics
 Every team has its own dynamics however,
functional teams share these characteristics
(Bodwell 1996, 1999);
 Full Participation,
 Trust,
 Open Communication,
 Clear Roles - By work function

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 Dealing with Different People
 Managers are faced with a challenge of not
knowing for sure if they have hired the right
person.
 All managers need experience and skills to
deal with both under performers and highly
productive individual.
 Every individual needs to be motivated
regardless of their performance.

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 Different Types of Employees
Workhorse
 An extremely hard working employee
 Less educated
 Very faithful and honest to the organization
 Not creative
 Only follow instructions without questioning

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 Different Types of Employees
Deadwood
 Low performer and at times do not perform at all
 Not creative
 Enjoys taking extended tea and lunch breaks chatting to
colleagues and friends
 Spends long hours on the phone making private calls
 Submits very poor quality work and after the deadline
 Low commitment to the organization
 Always negative about management or other colleagues

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 Different Types of Employees
Problem Employee
 Highly educated
 Well read
 Demotivated therefore lacks direction
 Undermines other colleagues
 Can convince other colleagues or mobilize against
management
 Always has reasons to escape from doing work
 If motivated can produce excellent work
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 Different Types of Employees
Stars
 Extremely hard working
 Highly educated and has a lot of work experience
 High level of commitment to the organisation
 Motivating others around her/him to also improve
their performance
 Very creative and innovative
 Produces high quality work and submits on time
 Exceed the expectations of her colleagues
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 Motivate People
(Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs)

 Physiological: adequate salary, reasonable working

hours, and conditions
 Safety: insurance and retirement benefits, grievance
procedures
 Social: affection, belongingness, acceptance and
friendship with coworkers and management
 Esteem: job title, promotions, company cars, awards
for being the best employee, etc.
 Self-actualization: freedom of expression, involved in
decision making
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 The Role of Reward
 The level of motivation and future performance is
directly influenced by the extent to which the
employee’s performance is recognized and most of
all rewarded.
 Some organisations still reward or provide incentives
based on seniority or hours worked.
 The challenge with this form of rewarding is that the
system of providing rewards is structured
inequitably, which will eventually lead to
demotivation.
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 Conflict Management
 Working with people means there bound to
be conflict. But where there is conflict
relationships turn to suffer rather than
strengthen.

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 Negative Views of Conflict
 All conflict is harmful and must be avoided.
conflict hinders group performance.

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 Positive Views of Conflict
 Conflict is natural in any group and is bound to
exist.
 Conflict is not only a positive force in a group
which when handled well can assist the group
to perform well.
 Conflict can support the goals of the group
and improves its performance or can.

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 Things to Consider
When deciding on your approach to conflict
resolution
– Why the conflict?
– What are the effects of the conflict?
– Are the parties involved ready to resolve
the conflict?
– How much time and resource do we need?

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Actions to Avoid in Conflict Resolution

 Organization leaders are responsible for

creating a work environment that enables
people to be satisfied.
 If disagreements and differences of opinion
escalate into interpersonal conflict,
intervention is needed immediately.
 Not intervening is not an option if you value
your organization and your positive culture.
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Actions to Avoid in Conflict Resolution

 In conflict-ridden situations, your mediation

skill and interventions are critical.
– Do not avoid the conflict, hoping it will go
away
– Do not meet separately with people in conflict
– Do not believe, for even a moment, the only
people who are affected by the conflict are the
participants

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 Other Ways of Dealing with Conflict
 Collaborating – working with both parties to
resolve the problem
 Compromising – a give and take situation if you
feel you have nothing to loose
 Accommodating – agree to agree and give in
without winning the fight
 Competing – stand firm to win the argument
 Avoiding – conflict should not be avoided,
problems have ways of coming back
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 Other Ways of Dealing with Conflict

 Negotiation - entails the process of

negotiating ‘giving’ and ‘taking’ between two
or more parties

It is advised that a well behaved and mature

person will be able to access the situation and
the nature of the conflict before deciding on
which methods to use.

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 Causes of Conflict
1. Parties sharing different interests.
2. Sharing a different understanding about the
same situation.
3. Placing a different value on the issue and/or
applying a different set of values.
4. Different ways of doing something.
5. Holding a different view on the issue.

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 Power
 Power and conflict are intricately connected.
 In many cases, conflict arises because there is
a power struggle of some form.
 To manage conflict effectively, we need to
identify where the balance of power lies.
 Identify what power you possess and what
power the other party possesses.

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 Power
 Other people are of the belief that the best
way of 'beating' an opponent is to identify
his/her strengths and weaknesses with the
intention of playing up the weaknesses.

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 Keep in Mind that

Power can be used for positive or

negative purposes

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 What Gives People Power
 Moral power, Verbal power, Skills power,
Resource power, Legal power, Physical power
Political power – people Position power –
people in positions of authority have the
power to determine the welfare of people
under them.

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 Resolving Conflict
 Plan and prepare
 Exercise communication skills
 Be able to persuade
 Exercise a sense of humour
 Use emotions effectively
 Use and read body language effectively
 Ensure credibility
 Be creative and intuitive
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 Resolving Conflict
 Exercise stamina
 Be democratic
 Focus on the problem, not the person
 Be a good listener
 Be a good process observer
 Be alert and sensitive
 Understand people’s feelings and thoughts

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 How to Deal with Anger when Resolving
Conflict

 Make sure that the angry person is calm before

you start the discussion
 Ask the person whether he/she angry with you
personally
 Try using empathetic listening
 Remain calm yourself
 Accept the other person’s angry feelings
 Encourage the other person to talk about the
anger
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Thank You

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