Managing people

Managing People.... as people comes in all shapes and sizes (meaning all different kinds of characters, behaviours, attitude and office cultural background) it is one of the most difficult but most crucial aspect in an organisation. An organisation is made up of its people, thus managing people is unavoidable.

Nobody can see in the eyes of management until they have sat in the hot seat of "management". All my previous theory in management has not equiped me with all the experience required in managing people. Well, this is good as it means I still have much to learn and much more room to grow... :) And being young means I am allowed to make some mistakes here and there as long as the lesson came with it.. :)

Isn't life full of surprises and challenges which makes it sooo much more colourful... ?

Having said that, I find it easier to work with male conterparts as they, (irregardless of ranks), tend to be more logical, systematical, fast, direct and less petty in their daily dealings. They tend to be less emotional and make their judgements and decisions base on facts and logic rather than depending on feelings and gut feel. Yes, being a female, I admit to generally making the same gender prone, hormone induced mistakes. However, I try hard to think like a man....

Ok...ok..... Not wanting to risk being labelled as gender biased, let's have the following pictures do the talking... :)

pictures sourced from Zits comic archive http://www.chron.com/apps/comics/showComick.mpl?date=20040101&name=Zits

Management 101: Self Motivation

How do you motivate people to take responsibility for their work and also things that are not even in their job scope and to make them do it willingly and whole heartedly .... taking the lead and taking all responsibilities and accountability from head to toe, from documentation, reporting and updates while ensuring quality on spec on time... ?

A big question mark. Tough but still not impossible.... I have seen many self motivated people out there working way beyond their call of duty and while occasionally grumble and grunt but still get the job done with pure heart and soul.

Self motivation is very important as you go up as your bosses no longer have the time to spoon feed you with motivation. I mean, look at all the top management. You think the CEO have time to sit down and motivate them slowly? At their level, motivation is easy as most of the top management already have their self agenda and targets and are motivated by actualising their personal targets which usually they will try to align to the CEO's target to get where they are...

At our lower level, well, we just need to find the motivation factor that can give us the passion to do our work and that very passion will spur us to walk that extra mile, take the extra weight and push extra harder....

And then you will need to try to identify what motivates your staff.... now that's the challenge because not everyone is at the maturity level to be self motivated. They are motivated by various factors such as money, good working environment, career path etc etc... So it's our job to help them identify their goals and motivate or guide them accordingly.

A big task... easier said than done... I am still learning this skill too.... Care to give a pointer or two?

More management lessons - Looking Up, Down, Left, Right, Centre

All my life I have been taught to LOOK UP...

1) Look up, reach for the stars, so that you wont end up with a handful of sand...
2) Look up to people and respect them....,
3) Look up to role models, follow their footsteps to success...
4) Look up, heads up, look ahead and think ahead...
5) even in IT, we have to lookup tables...

However, I now realise, it's equally important to look down as well. Yes, look down and see your people. Look down to see where you came from and learn from both your success and your mistakes. I am in middle management now... so it's equally necessary to look both Up and Down. I have to look up to follow the footsteps of senior management and I have to look down upon my staff to ensure that they are taken care of. I have to ensure that they are comfortable and happy with their environment and with "woman on top". :)

*Note: it's not looking down ON them but looking down TO SEE them....y'know, the "I see you" ala Avatar style...

For example, the working environment have to be kept clean and healthy and functional to ensure staff grousing are kept to the minimal. Staff welfare is utmost important for management because that's their essential job scope, which is to be responsible for your staff. Yes, the responsibility spreads wider than just the daily operational work but also include office ergonomics to ensure everyone has good fit in the working environment which will make work safer, healthier and more productive and eventually lead to happier and more productive staff...

So I learnt that I need to check on whether their cubicles are ergonimical, or if they have enough office supplies, whether the lights are bright enough, whether there's clean water supply, provide a comfortable and convenient pantry (**) , and most of all, ensure a fully functional, hygienic washroom.

** You may be surprised by this research findings but pantry is one of the most important office areas (next to corridors and elevators) as it provides a relaxed avenue for creative ideas exchange and team building. Thus you see Google and Microsoft spending on building nice, comfortable pantries for their staff.

So there...the take home note is ...remember to look up and look down.... and of course, don't forget the age-old lesson which you teach every child....to look left, right and left again... you must look-to, look-for and look-out for your peers as well.. ;) *wink*