People Management: Bring the Best Out of Every People

If managers wish to influence the performance of their companies, the most important area they should emphasize is the management of people. — Patterson, M. G., West, M. A., Lawthom, R., & Nickell, S. (1997)

In today’s economy, the ability to build human capital and manage knowledge is vital for success in almost any organization (Cabrera, E. F., & Cabrera, A., 2005). According to Barney (1991), resources that provide a source of sustained competitive advantage for a firm are valuable, unique, inimitable and non-substitutable. Human capital resources meet all of these criteria. Not only does higher quality human capital provide value for a firm, but high-quality human resources are rare and they are causally ambiguous and socially complex, making them difficult to imitate or substitute (Wright et al., 1994).

People management, also known as human resource management (HRM), encompasses the tasks of management and providing ongoing support and direction for the employees of an organization. These tasks can include the following: compensation, performance management, organization development, safety, wellness, benefits, employee motivation, communication, administration, and training (Sean McPheat, 2018).

According to Gallup research, only 28% of U.S. employees are engaged or are actively pursuing top performance on behalf of their organizations, and Gallup studies show that this has a direct impact on the bottom line. Engaged employees lead to engaged customers, who in turn drive a company’s growth, long term profitability, and stock price.

It can be challenging to manage a group of people. Humans can be tough and uncontrollable. As a leader, it is your duty to guide the group and bring out the best version of every group member. Sometimes, it seems that your team isn’t listening and you’re doing such a bad job.

Why Employee Attitudes towards the team will affect Company Performance?

According to Patterson, M. G., West, M. A., Lawthom, R., & Nickell, S. (1997), this is because of their attitudes will affect their organizational commitment. Take a look at the graph below!

Do employee attitudes predict change in company performance? (Source: Patterson, M. G., West, M. A., Lawthom, R., & Nickell, S. (1997))

After taking surveys from several companies, Patterson, M. G., West, M. A., Lawthom, R., & Nickell, S. (1997) got this result. The immediate rebuttal of these findings is the argument that positive employee attitudes are a consequence of the company’s previous good performance. In effect, the reason that job satisfaction predicts subsequent profitability and productivity is simply because the company’s prior performance was either good or bad, thus influencing employee attitudes. This argument suggests that the real link is between prior profitability and subsequent profitability, or prior productivity and subsequent productivity.

How to Improve Team Member’s Attitudes and Performance?

As a manager, it is your responsibility to help and improve your team’s member attitudes and performance. In order to make every team member shines in their own unique ways, there are few suggestions based on previous studies.

First of all, you’ve got to know an effective way to communicate with your team members. Workplace psychologists have defined four communication styles that we all fall into. By reading about and understanding these four styles, you’ll be better able to communicate with those that you work with.

• Directors → They are known for getting things done quickly and efficiently. The process things quickly, make fast decisions and like research and proven facts.
• Thinkers → They often need time to process and think things through before responding. They work slowly, deliberately, and want to make sure everything is just right.
• Socializers → They will thrive on talking with others and get energy from their colleagues. Socializers work fast, have great ideas, and process information very quickly.
• Relaters → They are relationship-oriented and enjoy working with others. Unlike the socializer, they move at a slower, calmer pace.

After knowing how to effectively communicate for every of your team member, you have to encourage them to improve their individual strength. According to the article “Basics of People Management” by Lisa McQuerrey, these are a few suggestions to improve team member’s attitudes and performance:

1. Training and Development → you should help your team members grow in their positions, encouraging them to accept greater levels of responsibility and to advance within the company.
2. Leadership → you should be responsible to evaluate your team members and making decisions about who is best suited to take on various assignments and providing detailed direction
3. Overseeing Teamwork → You should facilitate team-work between individual team member
4. Decision Making → You have to have the ability to make fair and objective decisions and to help your team members meet their professional potential.
5. Role Modeling → To effectively manage people, you should follow company rules, treat others with respect and dignity and behave in a professional manner at all times.
6. Mentoring → A good manager wants to see his/her team members do well. Mentoring could help team members achieve their full professional potential. This may involve developing a long-term professional development strategy for the team members, helping them identify opportunities for advancement and serving as a sounding board and providing professional advice and insight.

What I have done as a manager to improve my team member’s attitudes and performances?

1. Talk to my team → I have conducted one-on-one meetings with my team members and ask them point blank how you could be a better manager.
2. Get Organized → At the start of every sprint, I outline areas that are disorganized and confusing, and then I strategize on ways they can be improved.
3. Listen to Every Member → Sometimes, team members feel as if they are not being heard. When they speak up, they feel ignored, and that makes them unhappy and unmotivated. Therefore, I tried to do an active listening session with every member. I tried to understand them without judging them.
4. Praise and Reward → I always try to be specific when praising and rewarding my team members. I’ve been doing this because, in a Harvard Business Review survey on employee engagement, 72% of survey respondents said that recognizing high performers had a large impact on engagement.

References:

1. Noe, R. A., Hollenbeck, J. R., Gerhart, B., & Wright, P. M. (2017). Human resource management: Gaining a competitive advantage. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill Education.
2. Cabrera, E. F., & Cabrera, A. (2005). Fostering knowledge sharing through people management practices. The international journal of human resource management, 16(5), 720–735.
3. Patterson, M. G., West, M. A., Lawthom, R., & Nickell, S. (1997). Impact of people management practices on business performance (pp. vii-viii). London: Institute of Personnel and Development.
4. Paul, A. K., & Anantharaman, R. N. (2003). Impact of people management practices on organizational performance: Analysis of a causal model. The International Journal of Human Resource Management.