******** MANAGING YOUR TEAM ********
In life, Management is something few of us set out to do, yet most of us find ourselves doing it at some point in life.
As a manger you are expected to be a lot of things. A tower of strength, a leader, a motivator, a magician (conjuring up pay rises, resources and extra staff at the drop of a hat), a kindly uncle/aunt, a shoulder to cry on, a diplomat, a politician, a dynamic motivator, a stern but fair judge, a protector, a saint, a savior and a financial wizard (this is quite different from being a magician).
you are responsible for a whole gang of people that you probably didn't pick, may not like, might have nothing in common with and perhaps who won't like you much. You have to coax out of them a decent day's work. You are also responsible for their physical, mental and emotional care and safety. You have to make sure they don't hurt themselves - or each other. You have to ensure they can carry out their jobs according to whatever legislation your industry warrants. You have to know your rights, their rights, the company's rights as well as the union's rights.
We all have to work with people. these may be loosely known as a team or department or a squad or a crew - even a posse. it doesn't matter. the mistake a lot of managers make is to think they are managing people. they think that people are their tools, their stock-in-trade. make the people successful and you have the successful manager - or so the theory goes.
But unfortunately this is a myth and we need to see that the real role of the manager is to manage processes rather than people. People can manage themselves if you let them. what you need to be concentrating on is the real job of management - the strategy. The team is replaced by machines - and how many of us haven't prayed that this might happen? - we would still have a strategy, still have to be managing the process.
The people will have disappeared to be replaced by automatons but the real job will still be there. The good manager is managing change, the process and balance. in all of this we might need our 'people', but we also may not. We can't ignore the people of course, but we should be handing over as much self-management to them as we possibly can.
We as managers work with real flesh-and-blood people and we have to know what motivates them, how they think and feel, why they come to work, why they give their best (or their worst), what they are afraid of and what they hope and dream for. We shall have to encourage them, coach them and give them the resources to do their jobs and manage themselves.