Role of People Manager- Part 2

This is continuation from previous article.......

7. He understands Variation and stable systems
    A people manager understands well theory of variation. He will be able to identify causes in relation to stable system or unstable systems. He will not penalize people for variations that occurs within the stable system. He understands well, management intervention is required in a stable system to reduce variation. He understands that not much learning can take place in a stable system environment. He understands well that in a stable system, it will be demotivating to highlight individual variations.

8. He seek to help those who are outside the system
    A people manager who understands variation, will seek to identify those who are outside the system. He will thrive to assist this people and bring them into the system. The people outside the system does not mean those who are 5 percent below the average, but those are clearly out of system. These people requires special attention and their challenges must be understood and a tailor made interventions will be required to bring them into the system. A people manager must be equipped with theory of variation.

9  He takes ownership and accountability for results.
   A people manager takes ownership for results and use the results as an opportunity to improve himself. He aspire to learn and improve himself. This will help him to work with his people to improve the system. Improvement of the system will help everyone in the system and will decrease the spread of variation within the system.

10. He creates trust.
   A people manager creates an environment that allows people the freedom to express themselves and also be innovative. Mistakes are not penalized but encouraged through learning of mistakes. People are allowed to shine without the fear of taking the limelight away from the bosses. 

11. He listen and listens well
  A people manager will take the time to listen to his people. He will not pass judgement on them. He will have a number of informal discussions with his people away from office where it is possible. The informal discussions are geared to develop his people rather then talking about their performance. He will also seek to understand their aims, hopes and potential fears. He will listen to their feedback. A people manager will spend at least two hours  once annually with his people informally. He will strive to meet more often time permits. The meeting will be spontaneous and not planned ahead.

12. He believes in Continuous Improvement
 A people manager does not expect perfection but will work with people to improve themselves to continuously improve. He believes in spending his time in coaching and mentoring his people to improve his people.

Conclusion

A people manager to be effective must have the following knowledge as part of their leadership development program.

      An understanding of an Organization as a system
      Knowledge of Variation
      Coaching
      Mentoring
      Basic Psychology of people management
      

Time to rethink management development programs................


Source: W. Edwards Deming..The New Economics, Second Edition

Role of People Manager- Part 1

1. A manger understands the concept that an organization operates as a system.
         He explains to his people the meaning of organizational system. Each organizational system has its own aim in the form of vision  and mission. He makes sure that his people understand well these aims and mobilizes his people to work as one to achieve the aim.

2. He mobilizes his people to understand that they are a component of the organizational system.
         He helps to explain to his people that there are a vital part of the the organizational system. No single person is greater then any others within the system. He helps his people to visualize that a failure in any part of the system will lead to the failure of the organizational system in achieving it's aim. With the above explanation he seeks to his people to cooperate with upstream and downstream processes  in order to achieve the organization to achieve it's stated aim.

3. He understands well that people are different from each other.
        He makes the effort to understand the different background and capability of people. He has deep understanding of personal style and strength of his people (MBTI, DISC...). He varies and adopt his approaches to cater for the individual styles. He optimizes the individual strengths of his people to achieve the organizational aim.

4. He lead and champions a learning culture.
       He continuously engage in learning to improve himself. He encourages his people to do the same. He takes the opportunity to share his learning with his people on a regular basis which is scheduled in his calender. He ensure that his people has their own individual development plan documented and he follows up with them to ensure they complete the agreed development plan by attending relevant seminars, workshops, coaching, on the job training and other relevant learning and development interventions. He ensures that he spends time to review the learning outcome of his people after each learning interventions.

5. He is a Coach and Mentor
     He spends his time to coach and mentor his people on a regular basis. The coaching and mentoring sessions are scheduled in his calender. He will master the art of coaching and mentoring. He will ensure his people adopt the coaching and mentoring culture.

6. He has three sources of power: Authority, Knowledge, Personality and persuasive power.
    He develops himself in the area of knowledge and Persuasive power. He uses this two power more then the power of authority. Power of authority is used when a change is required to be made in the process such as reduction of variation. He uses this power when he has not been successful in persuasive power. Usage of authority is done sparingly. A manager without the right knowledge and persuasive power may tend to rely upon authority. This may lead to dissatisfaction within his people and may derail the achievement of the organizational aim.

Source: The New Economics by W. Edwards Deming, Second Edition

Quality Minute: RCA from Juran

There is a solution for every little problem. If we care to look for it.