What I Have Learned Managing People
In the past three years, I have had to manage hybrid and remote teams. While I always joke that my first-child position prepared me for this role, having awesome managers in the past and my keen observation allowed me to learn a lot that has come in handy in these roles.
One thing I did in my first role as a manager was think about the best manager I had and what qualities distinguished them amongst others. I also thought about the not-so-good ones and listed out the qualities that made the experience unpleasant. While I had all these qualities listed and also accessed my weakness, I also knew that I cannot be another person. The context of who I am and my personality matters a lot in creating my best management style.
So, the first thing I did was figure out what my managing style is and what sort of leader I am. While there are different articles to help figure this out( you can find one here or take a quiz here), I find that there are a lot more layers to me being a democratic leader and a servant leader. Figuring out the type of manager/leader that I am has allowed me to communicate better and navigate challenges easier.
That being said, managing people is not an easy task. It requires managing different personalities to get the best use of their skillset and most importantly, helping them to grow and be the best version of themselves.
In managing direct reports for three years across four organizations, these are the lessons I have learned.
- It is very important to know your team. People have different skill sets and you want to harness them effectively. You want to understand how to assign tasks, who to train, and how to support your team members. It’s unfair to delegate tasks to team members without knowing their strengths first.
- Ask for feedback and create enough psychological safety that allows people to do this freely.
- You cannot replicate yourself in your team members. There is a tendency to want people to do things the way you do them but that just sets everyone up for disappointment.
- People have lives outside of work and most times, the other aspects can overlap with their work. One-on-one meetings can be very instrumental to you knowing your team members a lot more intimately and understanding their motivations. You want to know their goals and understand what support they need from you to achieve that.
- Be gracious with appreciation. There is a lot of research on how appreciation can boost morale and make people feel valued. You can read this to know more details on how to do this effectively.
- Be empathetic.
- Give constructive criticism. Start with the positives and make it private where necessary.
- Speak up for your team.
- Well-documented processes make it easy to onboard new team members.
- Perks and shiny offices are cool but without providing the resources needed for the job, you are setting up your team to fail. They are not magicians.
- Use tools that the team understands and works well with not the next shiny tool.
- As a project manager, include the team in the planning process of your projects. It gives them a sense of ownership of the project.
- Your team cannot work in isolation so create a system that encourages cross-team collaboration and allows it to thrive. There is a tendency to see it as this team vs this. Always remember it is one organization working towards the same goal.
While this list is not exhaustive, I hope you found these very helpful.
Feel free to share lessons or tips that you think I can find helpful. I am still learning!
