By Dr Renate Volpe (June 09)

Managing people is the toughest part of most managers' jobs!

It is inevitable, that at some point in time, the people I coach will bring people-management issues to the table for discussion.

There are some really simple insights which can make your life easier when managing people.

As a manager you have three chances to influence people and encourage them to behave appropriately, to have a better attitude and to be more productive. The three opportunities are:

Firstly, to become an expert at reading, interpreting and managing behavior,
Secondly, to focus on managing work performance and
Thirdly , if opportunities one and two have been missed, you will inevitably
find yourself dealing with an emotive time-consuming crises situation.

The first option of reading, interpreting and managing behavior is the most positive, time-efficient
and cost-effective option. True leaders are experts at understanding and managing behavior.

When people are struggling or stressed or overloaded, they will make their discomfort known
and call for help in one of four ways, namely they will :
• look for attention,
• get into power struggles,
• withdraw and or plead inability,
• sabotage their fellow employees.

When people use attention as a flag for assistance, they may behave in an inappropriate manner in an effort to make people notice them. They may dress inappropriately, behave badly, make endless conversation, look for distractions and avoid getting their work done.

When people behave like this, the general rule is to ignore the inappropriate behavior and to reward appropriate behavior. In this manner one extinguishes the behavior one does not desire and one encourages the behavior one deems to be appropriate.

Getting into power struggles is a situation where the employee displays poor attitude, refuses to take on a task, or gives apparently legitimate reasons why they cannot do what is required of them.

When managing such a person, inevitably the natural response is to want to make people bend to one's will, which is to meet power with power. All that this achieves is a "ping pong" relationship, intense dislike of one another and further power play. What needs to happen is that the senior person needs to recognize this behavior as a call for help.
When they are calm themselves, they should call the offending person into their office and, in a neutral manner, begin a conversation and lead up to the incidence and observed behavior, and ask what really is at stake, what the person needs and wants, and how they can assist.

The third behavior may be observed as an inability to deliver - where the person says they can’t do something because they are ill, or have to take leave, or are overwhelmed and stressed. Alternatively it is the person who behaves passive aggressively. For example they are in a meeting, they don’t say a word but everyone knows they were there, and that they were not happy.

This is a situation where a focus on work performance and consequences is required. In other words, calling the person in, investigating the facts of the situation, providing development and support where indicated, but keeping the person focused on work performance requirements, and following through on consequences where indicated.

Lastly, sabotage as a behavior is similar to power and occurs when people feel threatened, insecure or angry.

An example of sabotage would be the telling of a racist or gender joke with the intention of demeaning a certain person or even oneself as a manager. As a senior person one should once again recognize this inappropriate behavior as a flag for assistance. Once having calmed down one should then call the person into a private space and raise the topic in a non judgmental manner, asking what the underlying cause is, and focus on addressing the emerging information constructively.

For enquiries please e mail Dr Renate Volpe, CEO of HIRS at Renate@hirs.co.za or call 011 455 0769 / 083 273 2687.