Developing Strategies: In order to develop strategies and skills for managing people problems then there are 5 assumptions managers need to agree with:
1) There is no such thing as a problem person, only problem behaviours. It is always some aspect of the person’s behaviours that cause you a problem
2) Problem behaviours are made and not born. All problem behaviours have been acquired by the person at some time and as such it is possible to change it
3) All problems behaviours fall into one of two categories. Too much behaviour and too little behaviour.
4) Problem behaviours need to be viewed relative to the actual situation in which they are displayed. Problem behaviours may well be caused by the situation itself
5) Different approaches are needed depending on whether the behaviour is new or part of habitual behaviour. A capable manager deals with a new problem immediately – it is much easier to nip it in the bud than to try to sort out things that have happened many times and never been confronted before.
There are four alternative ways for managers to act when considering people problems
1) Do nothing – such an easy option for many managers – always excuses for refusing to sort out problems for the benefit of everyone. Often, the greater the problem, the greater the risk involved in confronting it, and more likely managers are to do nothing.
2) Re-think your perception to the problem – perhaps the problem is only yours because you are “the boss” and have ideas about appropriate behaviour. Perhaps no one else is bothered and the behaviour is not affecting work rate
3) Persuade the problem person to change or modify his or her behaviour. If managers make the request reasonable and listen carefully to response, then it can be straightforward to affect changes.
4) Change the situation – it may be that the problem person is overworked, or is trying to work with poor resources. Listen carefully to the problem and by changing the situation the problem may be considerably alleviated.
Management Skills: Why is providing effective feedback essential?
“Feedback” is the work most often used when talking about formal or informal appraisal interviews and whilst this is an obvious situation for feedback, there are other situations where giving feedback is an important part of the process such as coaching and mentoring. That is guiding and helping staff to learn and gain skills either in a recognised coaching situation or in day to day working contacts.
There are more ways of providing feedback than simply by sitting-down discussions between manager and subordinate. For example, a task that helps people learn by experience or gain a better idea of strengths and weaknesses or even a psychometric questionnaire for self-analysis can give valuable insights.
Feedback helps employees to answer the questions about themselves and their performance. It may be that employees get the wrong idea about what their managers think of them and their work (especially when the manager is often busy and harassed). Employees without feedback can be underrating or overrating their work performance.
However, poor feedback is worse than none at all. If a manager’s comments are seen is inaccurate or biased or just plain unkind then the impact on performance is going to be negative rather than the positive learning effect that feedback should have.