Leadership Tips All Managers Can Learn From

Masha -

People management is an important skill for every leader. Whether you're new to this role or have been managing people for years, mastering this skill will have a positive impact on employee engagement and productivity.

When I think back on my own career, several important HR managers come to mind. They are the ones who made my colleagues and I feel really comfortable and who never told me I couldn't do something. Instead, they encouraged me to try it.

After 15 years of management experience in various industries, contexts and functions, I will now present the basics of leadership, some different leadership styles and tips for effective leadership at all levels.

What is human resources management?

Human resource management is the process of ensuring that the right people with the right resources are in the right place to achieve desired goals. This includes hiring, training and developing your team members.

Why is human resources management so important?

Management has a major influence on the experiences each employee has throughout their life cycle. Management behavior and style have a significant impact on employee performance, engagement, productivity and retention, especially when it comes to change.

There is a lot of overlap between people management and leadership, and generally good leaders are also good managers. However, there are some key differences. This includes:

  • Leaders often have more of a strategic role and vision, while managers tend to focus on day-to-day operations.
  • Managers coach their employees to improve themselves and achieve personal goals, while managers direct their employees to achieve the organizational goal.
  • Leaders tend to challenge the status quo while managers try to achieve or maintain the status quo
  • Leadership is qualitative and the results are intangible, while management is quantitative and the results are measurable.

Getting started in human resources management

The qualities of a good human resources manager are often difficult to pin down. We all want to be led by someone who is competent, confident and decisive, but how do you get to that person? And what does it take to stay in this role?

My students are often aspiring HR managers or have just started having people reporting to them. In most cases, these people care deeply about their employees and want to learn how to best serve them.

The authenticity of their care is what matters most in the first few days, and from there we add skills and awareness to create truly strong, supportive and empathetic people managers.

Human resource management styles

There are some notable styles to consider when evaluating your people management techniques to manage them in a way that promotes performance, employee retention, and a positive employee experience.

Employee management can be divided into four categories:

  • Directive
  • Coaching
  • Supportive
  • Delegative

Directive leadership

In directive leadership, the manager tells employees what to do and how to do it. This style is most effective when tasks need to be completed quickly and efficiently to a specific standard or requirement, or when employees are early in their development and need more guidance.

However, there is a big difference between directing an employee and micromanaging them. If you find yourself micromanaging or resisting work or decisions because they don't go your way, consider your true fears. Then create opportunities for your employees to demonstrate their competence, build self-confidence, and inspire trust.

Coaching of employee management

In this situation, managers provide clear, specific instructions and support employees in achieving desired results. This style helps employees learn certain behaviors and cultural norms so that the leader is able to be more supportive and less directive in the future.

The coaching style is helpful in developing specific behaviors in highly competent employees adapting to a new organizational culture or context.

Supportive employee management

The manager provides employees with guidance and support, but gives them the freedom to make decisions, including being results-oriented.

This style is often more positive for employees and can produce better results when there are many "right answers" and employees are experienced and competent at achieving a positive outcome in the specific context or organization.

Delegative leadership

The leader gives employees autonomy to make their own decisions with little support or involvement.

The delegative style can be helpful in developing employee skills and is typically best suited to sophisticated employees who have a thorough understanding of the company's context, culture, and goals.

There is no one style that fits everyone

Even within a team, employees with different levels of development are best managed or led with different leadership styles. The best people managers are able to identify which style works best for the individual and the team.

For example, when managing project managers, I have found that new employees need more guidance at the beginning as they learn the context, culture, expectations and norms of our company.

At this stage of their development, I often have new hires work with me to solve a problem or achieve a result. Later, I give them their own projects where I can transition into a coaching style. As my experience and competence increases, my approach becomes more supportive and later more delegative.

If you want to determine what type of leadership is best for each of your employees, consider their experience and development or maturity in their role and get feedback on your leadership. This will help you determine whether employees need more support or direction from you to do their jobs to the best of their ability.

What are the tasks of a manager?

The responsibilities of a human resources manager include the following tasks, many of which are critical to an employee's life cycle:

In addition to these responsibilities, a human resources manager plays a critical role in creating a positive and inclusive work environment by listening to employee concerns, mediating conflicts, and fostering a culture of respect.

To excel in these leadership roles, it is important to prioritize effective communication and continuous learning. Schedule regular one-on-one meetings to give and receive employee feedback, and stay up to date on the latest industry trends and techniques through workshops and training.

What skills are required for leadership?

Human resource management requires a combination of skills and abilities focused on supporting employees and managing performance, results and resource allocation.

Some key skills that particularly come to mind are:

  1. Selecting, interviewing and onboarding employees to ensure the right talent is selected and integrated for company success.
  2. Building and maintaining trusting relationships to create a positive and cooperative work environment.
  3. Active listening and clear communication to create understanding, resolve conflicts and ensure team collaboration and coordination.
  4. Providing targeted, timely feedback to guide and motivate employees and help them develop and improve their performance effectively.
  5. Identifying employee strengths and core competencies to make the most of talent and increase team performance and job satisfaction.
  6. Distribution and delegation of work for efficient task allocation, empowered employees and a balanced work environment.
  7. Establish clear expectations to provide direction, align team efforts, and set a standard for performance and accountability.
  8. Motivate employees to promote engagement, increase morale, and improve productivity and job satisfaction.
  9. Collaborate on problem solving to leverage diverse perspectives and expertise, resulting in more innovative and effective solutions.
  10. Promote development and learning from mistakes to foster a growth mindset, resilience and continuous improvement in employees.
  11. Celebrate successes to recognize achievements, boost team and individual morale, and encourage positive behaviors and team unity.

8 tips for effective human resources management

1.Hire the right people

Hiring the right employees is the key to the success of any company. Someone with the wrong skills or values can result in a waste of time and effort that could have been avoided. But how do you know if someone has what it takes?

The best way to hire the right person is through an interview that includes non-technical questions about their experience, values, and goals, as well as technical questions related to the job or your company. I have also had good experiences involving other team members in the interview process.

Here's a tip: Hire slowly, fire quickly. If you hire the wrong person, get rid of them quickly so you can move forward with your hiring plan and find the right person to support your team and your company's goals.

2.Set clear expectations

Setting clear expectations for employees is one of the most important things a leader can do for their team members. You tell your employees what you expect from them and what they can expect from you.

So how can you set clear expectations for your employees?

The best way to do this is with a job description or job clarification document that sets out the specific duties and responsibilities of the job, as well as the objectives of the position. This document should be updated regularly as the employee's duties change.

Another way to set clear expectations is to have regular one-on-one meetings with employees to discuss their performance. Remember that you want to help them see the value and impact of their actions and that you want to guide them to achieve the team's goals and their personal goals.

3.Give regular feedback

Regular feedback is key to maintaining open communication and minimizing slippages and surprises.

By giving feedback, you let your team members know what they are doing well and where they need to improve. This ensures that your employees are constantly developing and expanding their skills.

When I give feedback, I practice radical openness. Praise your employees publicly and challenge them privately. Use your emotional intelligence to guide the way you give feedback, and also be open to feedback about the way you give feedback!

Why is it so important that you do this regularly? Well, it's incredibly important that you don't save negative feedback for an employee's official performance review. Regular check-ins ensure you can resolve issues more quickly and reduce the stress and anxiety of larger conversations.

4.Offer training and development opportunities

You want to feel like you're constantly learning and growing professionally, right?

That's why it's so important that managers offer their employees development and training opportunities that are tailored to their individual career goals. By offering these opportunities, you show your employees that you value their development and are investing in their future.

Do you have an employee who would like to develop further and aspire to a management position? Support him. To grow and develop, you need more leaders to lead your teams. So always encourage those who want to learn to lead others and develop their leadership skills.

The best way to provide your team members with development and training opportunities is to provide them with a variety of learning options, such as: B. Online courses, books, podcasts on leadership or workshops that are tailored to their interests and career aspirations. You can also offer internships or job rotations so that employees can get to know other areas of the company.

5.Address poor performance immediately

When it comes to managing underperforming employees or addressing poor performance, timing is everything. As I mentioned earlier, you shouldn't hesitate to talk to your employees about their poor performance.

By the time you as a manager find out about it, other people will certainly have been affected and, in the worst case, the well-being of the individual employee will be at risk. The longer you wait, the greater the risk of the situation getting worse.
Some common signs of poor employee performance include failing to meet deadlines or producing substandard work, behaving in a disruptive or hostile manner, or lacking commitment or motivation. Sometimes this is a sign that an employee wants to quit, but not always.

In some cases, high-performing employees who work with low-performing employees notice performance problems and complain. Talk to the potentially underperforming employee and get their perspective on how things are going and what challenges the team faces in achieving their goals. In some cases the problem is simply self-perception.

What can you do if feedback and immediate resolution of the problem don't work?

If you discover that an employee is not meeting performance standards, you should immediately begin documenting the issues and recording details, timestamps, and impacts. Recording details of the situations, your interventions, feedback given, responses and agreed next steps will be very helpful if the problems persist or reach a point of termination.

6.Encourage creativity and innovation; accept failures

"You have to trust the passion, drive and creativity of a person who really wants to implement an idea. Trust is what we need to be successful in our profession and the relationship we need to have with our superiors. " - John Carter, inventor of Bose noise-cancelling headphones

Encouraging creativity and innovation in the workplace is an important factor for growth, employee engagement and retention. Creative and innovative employees are more committed and motivated and are more likely to have the opportunity to develop new ideas and solutions to problems.

But creativity, innovation and growth also include failure. In innovative companies, failure should be seen as a learning opportunity. It's important to create an environment where it's okay to fail, and you as a leader can do this by helping your employees learn from the experience.

To find out what went wrong, start by asking questions like "What did you want to achieve?" "What were the main challenges you faced?" and "What will you change or adapt in your next attempt?" These are questions future-oriented and help your employees learn.

7.Actively listen to your employees, teams and the organization

Active listening is a communication technique and a soft skill that involves listening carefully to the person speaking, not interrupting them, making eye contact, and taking notes if necessary.

Yes, this is an interpersonal skill that managers must possess as it is essential to creating a company culture where employees feel supported and empowered.

Active listening is intended to ensure that the speaker feels heard and understood. This is helpful for both new and experienced leaders because the different levels of listening help them gain a deeper understanding of their employees' thoughts and feelings. In this way, managers can better support their employees and help them achieve their goals.

Active listening also helps build trust between the manager and the employee because it shows that you value the person speaking. When employees feel heard and understood, it creates a more positive work environment and impacts employee engagement, retention and productivity. It is also a very useful skill to help in conflict situations.

8.Celebrate successes

When employees feel like their hard work is recognized and appreciated, they feel more engaged and motivated, which in turn leads to them being more productive and contributing more to the company.

A successful people management strategy involves celebrating successes with employees and thanking them for their hard work. Ring the bell!
Celebrate your employees by sharing the news of their success and publicly congratulating them. You can do this in person, on virtual collaboration platforms, and even on Linkedin!

People like to hear about the successes of the company and their colleagues. It makes them feel like they are part of something bigger and that their work is valuable.

Plus point: manage remote work

After nearly two years of managing direct reports via a webcam and headset, I've found unique ways to strengthen team cohesion, facilitate decision-making, develop new skills, and continue to deliver results. Here is my checklist for being a great leader working remotely:

  • Get to know your employees. Find out more about their lives, their skills, their goals and what they like to do outside of work. This is a great way to build empathy and connection.
  • Meet casually and often. Schedule regular time to meet with your employees. 25 minutes every one to two weeks is best in most cases. Your employees should determine this time themselves, as it should be aimed at improving their performance and development.
  • Adapt your leadership style depending on your employee and context. Depending on your employees' development and needs, you may need to spend more time with some members of your team than others. Take the time necessary and manage each employee according to their needs, not yours.
  • Encourage professional development. Just because employees are working from home doesn't mean they should stop learning. Learning can help overcome the feeling of "doing nothing" and develop new skills, abilities and interests.

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