Managing People at Work

In our course of work, we come across different across people from different walks of life. We might meet people who are at different end of the spectrum – from the very ambitious to the plain lazy.   

It is fair to say that workplaces do not bring out the best in people, yet it consists most of our daily hours. Here are some tips to manage your emotions, and expectations.

Be Patient

Once a while, we need to be constantly reminded that we have different moods throughout the day. It is impossible for one to be constantly optimistic and positive about life. Do remember that if you are experiencing a disheartening colleague, or even an unreasonable one, you should not be judging the person as his entire character. Instead of being judgmental, you can choose to be tolerant.

Instead, it would not hurt to show a little bit of a concern to understand the reasons why they are not in the best of moods, and to be supportive. This helps you make more friends than foes.

Say what you feel, constructively

Some people are not as sensitive as the rest, and colleagues could have affected you without being aware of their actions. Share your thoughts to people who are being overly critical on others. This might help to heighten self-awareness which would lead to either them being very apologetic, or defensive.

This would still be a form of negative reinforcement and your colleagues would subconsciously consider twice before being overly critical on others.

Manage expectations

This would mean either managing your expectations, or managing your colleagues’ or superiors’ expectations. If your colleagues, or superior would expect you to be on the ball always – even during after work hours, or when you are on a holiday – you might want to sit down with them to personally share with them on their expectations and to see how other ways you can work together.

With these three tips, you should be able to handle your emotionally needs as well as your colleagues in understanding the different people. It is always important to remind yourself, that past situations have led people to be who they are – including yourself.

Is being a good leader always superior to being a good manager

If you are given the opportunity to lead a team – how do you distinguish between being a leader and a manager? There might be sometimes that you wonder if you should place priorities on the development of your team, or in ensuring things get done right in the fastest time possible. Like what Peter Drucker said “Leadership is doing the right things; management is doing the things right”

The following are the main consideration factors between when you should use which leadership style

Your current team culture

If you have a team who does not like change, and who prefer to be instructed than empowered – the team requires a manager instead of a leader. Leaders constantly challenge status quo and often have the courage to take on risk and it would be disastrous if the team is constantly fighting against change.

A leader also has a tendency to have highly stretched goals and the audacity of the goals and would be disastrous if the team feels it is unattainable, with a lot of self-doubts.

Urgency of tasks and amount of resources

If the tasks at hand are urgent, a manager would be better than a leader because they are more results and tasks orientated. Managers would be taking the defined goals and executing by having a list of detailed plans – so the goals would be achieved by average employees in the shortest time.

Existing culture of the company

If the current culture of the company is also risk adverse and where the Key Performance Indicators (KPI) of employees and incumbents are strictly monitored – then a leader would not be able to excel in this environment as well. Imagine if a leader invents to define new paradigms, using his creativity to be constantly rejected his Chief Executive Officer (CEO).

Ultimately, one leadership style is not a superior form over the other. To sustain and to remain competitive with their competitors, companies should have a good mixture of transformational leaders as well as good managers. When companies are hiring management levels, they should also understand what is the current culture of the company as well as the needs of this team. This can help define the purpose on why this new incumbent is brought on board

The distinction between working for a leader and working for a manager

The fact exists that sometimes when employees leave organizations, they are not quitting on the company, but rather their bosses. This fact is often hidden under the piles of other reasons during the exit interview process, or during a new job interview process. People know not to talk bad about their previous employers as it might hurt the chances of landing their new dream role.

The following are the main distinctions between a manager and a leader.

The difference between controlling and influencing

Leaders influence, motivate and empower towards the effectiveness and success of the organization, whereas managers direct and control employees towards accomplishing that goal. Leaders see problems as opportunities and think of solutions, together with their team. They excite their people and focus them to solve problems and excel. On the other hand, managers formulate strategies, policies and methods and get their people to execute to reduce unnecessary risk to get the tasks done.

The difference in the personality styles

Leaders usually come with great charisma, and are not risk-adverse. They encourage risks and usually will go against “status quo”. Managers take on the more rational, realistic approach and are control problem solvers. Their main focus would be on how to accomplish the goals and coming up with a structure to attain the goals based on the available resources. Their personalities are more geared towards persistence, strong will, analysis and intelligence.

The people they are managing

The people the leaders are managing are followers. This is because leaders are very people-orientated and they have the emphasis on leading people. Managers, on the other hand are leading subordinates because they are mainly tasks and results orientated.

There is no right or wrong in choosing a leadership style over the other. It really depends on your current situation such as the people you are managing, and their preferred working styles. The best bet is to engage your current employees, and understand the urgency of situation before deciding that one leadership style is more superior compared to the other.