10 Rules of People management

Managing people is tough probably beause there is no science behind it. The same stimulus can yeld amazingly different responses from different individuals even sometimes from the same individual. There are too many variables to take into account - the personal value system, the society, the culture, personal circumstances, family issues, feelings etc.. So it is nearly impossible to predict how someone will behave given a particualr event. Yet we have to get work done, we have to plan and this involves prediction of desired behaviour. And somehow there seems to be a framework on which we can base people management -  I have dug through my experience and that of some of my esteemed friends and have come up with somes - here goes

Rule 1: Trust breeds efficiency: The more you trust - the more you will delegate and the less time you will spend in tracking. This will lead to increased efficiency. This rule can only apply at certain levels of maturity i.e. 

Rule 2: Don’t react to disasters: No matter what the situation learn to count to 100 before you respond. Whatever may the disaster - it is now in the past and no matter what you do - you cannot change the past !! So be gracious and act with a calm mind and see how the team will start looking up to you.

Rule 3: Be as honest as possible: Most people are intelligent and they can smell bullshit a mile away. Remember how many times you have switched off when listening to BS from your seniors. So don’t commit the same mistake be as real and as honest as possible. It builds great bridges of communication.

Rule 4: Don’t Change things just for the sake of it: They say change is necessary - but make you sure you don’t make chanegs just because you have read that it is necessary. Try to keep things stable  - the easiest teams to manage are the ones in a steady state. However if change is necessary then over communicate about the need to change ( again remember Rule 3).

Rule 5: Make you communication non-transactional: Many-a-time managers are guilty of communiting with their teams only when necessary that is what is called transactional communication examples would be - communicating management strategy, announcements, data collection emails etc.. This is necessary and by all means we should continue but also important is some non-transactional communication about - your views, some personal updates of team membes, sharing successcess etc..

Rule 6: Focus on the present and the future: I am really surprised at how much time some people spend about issues in the past - you should not have done that, that is not how I would have done it, that was a mistake, we did well , those were good times etc.. It may be a good water cooler conversation but what will get a team motivated is the simple thing of “What should I do today to make my tomorrow better” -  Focus on this and not on the past

Rule 7: Remember as many details about your staff as possible: It pleases people no end when the boss asks about family and actually remembers some details like the aniversary, the wifes B’day, childrens events etcc. You will buy instant loyality with this.

Rule 8: Don’t raise your voice or be agresive in your words. Reserve the agression for your actions. The people always respect a leader whose actions are to be feared.

Rule 9: Praise and Reprimand are like currency - use them sparsley. Praise people when you really value their efforts and then let your actions show your appreciation rather than just words.Same with reprimand - use it sparsely when you really intend to act upon the reprimand that you will deliver.

Rule 10: Don’t gripe to your team , the gripes always go upward. Never complain in front of your team - they start feeling that you are as helpless as them and the respect slowly erodes. On the otherhand don't trivialize the issue at hand but accept it and deal with it. If you have to complain - complain to your boss.