Learn the Art of People Management

LEADERSHIP & STRATEGYSTARTUP BASICS

Fahad Zaidi

4/29/20235 min read

What would be the best creative environment for working in an organization?

What would you be willing to look forward to? How can you enhance your work and mood at the same time? What would help your colleagues to improve their work and leave while being satisfied?

Being aware of what is going around you is a key point to strategize using the resources you have. A manager has quite an effect on his subordinates. Creating a stress-free environment, making sure the employees are motivated and as a manager or an entrepreneur you, yourself are satisfied with the result of your efforts are the factors that affect the flow of your work.

CREATING A POSITIVE WORK ENVIRONMENT

Leaders Effect on Employees
As previously stated, leaders have a fair effect on their employees. The way they take the ups and downs during work has a major effect on the working environment of the company.

They need to maintain their cool most of the time. This helps improve the surrounding mood as well hence playing the role in uplifting the moods of the employees due to which better results would be generated.

The Effect of Work Environment
If a leader creates a positive work environment, the employees would be able to work more efficiently than before. This increases their creativity, productivity and satisfaction. Due to this, the efficiency of work skyrockets. The employees, when ending work on a positive note, would be highly motivated to start a new day with the same energy. Learn how you can provide a good facility.

TIME MANAGEMENT SKILLS

Managing your time and planning ahead of time not only helps in saving time but also aids in managing each task effectively. This will help in potentially reducing the errors along with a systematic flow of work. Managing your employees also becomes easier. Going ahead without a plan always increases the amount of setbacks and would more than often backfire.

Plan Your Day and Work
Planning your day is the first step in your time management. Plan your day out. make sure it’s a little flexible to manage any setbacks that may happen. Set your goal for that particular day. Keep in mind the importance of that specific goal you choose.

Prioritize
In accordance with your plan and set goal, make a list of priorities. Check and confirm for anything you might have missed. Redo your checklist. Verify whether every member of your team is on board while ensuring you are not missing out on anything important.

Point Out Do's & Dont's
After you are done with making your checklist, highlight the do's and don’ts for everyone so as to avoid any setbacks which may disrupt the flow of work. Specify the methods for everyone in detail to enhance the productivity of the tasks.

Reach the Set Goal
Ascertain that you reached your goal at the end of the day. This would give you a sense of fulfillment and satisfaction. After the day is over, confirm that you have reached the goal you set out to complete for a flawless execution of your day’s plan.

Evaluate What You’ve Done
Now after you’re done with your plan, run-through what you’ve done so far. Evaluate your and your team’s work. This will help in pointing out any errors that were over-looked before hence ensuring the work is done perfectly.

See Whether You Followed the Set Plan
After you’re done with everything, discern if you have followed your plan accordingly. What you left, how many errors or setbacks there were; see if your team followed your lead as designed; if there were any deficiencies or if the plan was insufficient in keeping with the amount of work or the size of the project.

BECOME ONE WITH YOUR WORKFORCE

Getting in the zone is the key to a flawless execution of plan. You are so focused on the task at hand that you disregard everything else. As you become more involved, you start enjoying your work, the rate of setbacks decreases and the productivity of the task improves.

Another name for being in the zone is flow state. So what exactly is flow state? It's that incredible notion of deeply enjoying yourself. Time and surroundings have little to no effect on you whatsoever.

Steps to Achieve Flow State
To get in the flow, the task should just be challenging enough to keep you working. It should not cause too much of a stress for you, and it should not be easy enough for you to start getting bored.

Working towards a set goal helps you get your work done at a tremendous pace. So, pointing out your project goals help you stay in the loop and it keeps you focused on the assignment at hand.

In order to achieve flow state, the reduction in dis-tractions plays a key role. when there are no distractions, you would solely be working on the project at hand without stopping.

Get in the Zone as a Team
Working with your team will help you take off the excess work you are working on. By working together, you are able to work more with more finesse and accuracy. Making sure your whole team is in by following the steps mentioned before, you not only increase the work done, but it also improves the creativity and productivity of the work.

Operating in Groups
Working in groups will help you reduce the work time. Divide your team into pairs or groups of 3-4 and have them work on one task while other groups work on the tasks of their own. This would help in getting more work done in the same amount of time while ensuring every member’s involvement. Being able to work creatively, while being motivated and ending the day on a happy note helps attain positive results and boost morale.

WORK WITH PEOPLE, NOT BOSS AROUND THEM

It is a very thin line that separates ‘managing people’ from ‘controlling them’. Not everyone in a group, a department or an organization would like to be managed on the same level or with a same set of expectations. It is imperative for entrepreneurs and managers to acknowledge this fact rather quickly, or they might end up losing good, productive human resources from their organization. Also, effective people management is always better than spending resources on employee retention.

In addition to this, setting clear and achievable goals is very important for any organization and any tier of management. Entrepreneurs or superiors are expected to use realistic and practical approaches such as a technique that is generally known as SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time-bound). Using this model, team members are aware of what is needed, how it can be achieved and what are the factors that they would need to consider once they are on the course of achieving a specific goal. Furthermore, employees need to feel respected and valued at work. Once entrepreneurs start bossing them around, it adversely affects their self-confidence, motivation, creativity and productivity. People need to have a sense of autonomy to some extent, so that they can bring out the best in them.

Setting goals and subdividing the work among groups to achieve those goals helps in the execution of a plan with little to no setbacks.

Last but not the least, effective entrepreneurs are those who maintain a fine balance in their work relationship with the team members. Achievements need to be celebrated, as much as failures need to be addressed, in order to keep the employees motivated, driven and focused towards achieving a certain goal.

In today’s highly competitive, digitally advanced business environment, effective people management can be a deal-breaker at a higher level. It can be the deciding factor when it comes to company’s survival or future growth. The art of people management requires a combination of interpersonal skills, emotional intelligence, and a deep understanding of human behavior. By effectively managing people, startups can foster a positive work culture, enhance employee engagement and productivity.