ORGANIZATION BEHAVIOR

By: JHONEL M. BALLERAS

University of North Eastern Philippines
Master of Arts in Education (Administration and Supervision)

PEOPLE SKILLS

As a manager, it isn’t easy to manage a group of people. Sometimes, it feels like you’re
team isn’t listening, or that you’re not doing a great job.
Thankfully, you can always improve the way you manage people. If you employ these
steps, you’ll be well on your way to creating a motivated team that’s as powerful and
strong as you are.
Here’s some process to improve your management skills and better manage your team:

1. Get Organized

One of the reasons leaders are ineffective is because they’re all over the place. They
don’t have the right software solutions, they’re unsure of their goals, and they have
difficulty resolving conflicts. Organization can help.

At the start of every month or quarter, outline areas that are disorganized and
confusing, and strategize ways they can be improved. Maybe you need e solution to
help you organize your calendar, or a new meeting schedule with your reports.

2. Talk to Your Team

Your team has a wealth of information on your leadership performance that can help
you improve. Looping in your team to your pursuit will help them help you.

 Tell your team you’re working on improving your leadership skills.

 Send out a survey, allowing your team members to remain anonymous. Ask
employees how you’re doing as a manager, where you could improve, what they
do and don’t like about your style.

 Conduct one-on-one meetings with your direct reports and ask them point blank
how you could be a better manager.
 3. Take a Leadership Course

Sometimes, it’s difficult to improve on your own. Courses can help. Look to your local
colleges and universities to see if they offer any courses on leadership. There are tons of
online courses as well that you can take at your own pace.

4. Learn How to Listen

One of the biggest complaints of employees everywhere is that they don’t feel heard.
They don’t feel as though they have the ability to express their opinion or positively
make a change in the organization. When they speak up, they feel ignored, and that
makes them unhappy and unmotivated.

According to Udemy, there are five aspects of good listening— receiving, understanding,
remembering, evaluating, and responding. You need to be able to understand all five of
these steps to listen to your employees.

5. Practice Praising and Rewarding

To be a good leader, you have to give feedback to your employees, especially praise and
rewards. When you’re praising an employee, be specific.

Instead of saying “you’re doing a great job,” highlight a specific project, and explain why
their help was so important. Try “the project for client ABC was very difficult, but the
way you communicated their needs to the entire team is what made us get it right. I
was really impressed with that. Nice work.”

In a Harvard Business Review survey on employee engagement, 72% of survey

respondents said that recognizing high performers had a large impact on engagement.

6. Find a Mentor or Coach

It can be difficult to accurately assess your own leadership skills. That’s why many turn to
executive coaches, mentors, and others they can trust. Perhaps you already have a
mentor, or maybe there’s someone you can turn to for honest assessment of your skills.

Executive coaches are also a great option. Those who specialize in leadership can work
with you to identify your strengths and weaknesses, then help you put a plan in place to
tackle your goals. Harvard Business Review suggests executive coaches and gives a
great outline on how to find one who’s a good fit for you and your organization.
 7. Learn How to Effectively Communicate

Effective communication is one of the most important parts of leadership, and different
team members will respond to different styles.

Workplace psychologists have defined four communication styles that we all fall into. By
reading about and understanding these four styles, you’ll be better able to
communicate with those that you work with.

 Thinkers – Thinkers need time to process and think things through before
responding. They work slowly, deliberately, and want to make sure everything is
just right.
 Socializers – Socializers thrive on talking with others and get energy from their
colleagues. Socializers work fast, have great ideas, and process information very
quickly.
 Directors – Directors are known for getting things done quickly and efficiently.
The process things quickly, make fast decisions, and like research and proven
facts.
 Relaters – Relaters are relationship-oriented and enjoy working with others.
Unlike the socializer, they move at a slower, calmer pace.

8. Be Transparent

Companies are beginning to embrace transparency in the workplace. As a leader, you

should embrace it with your staff.

Today, about 25% of employers don’t trust their employer, according to the American
Psychological Association. That’s bad news. Employees who don’t trust their company
or their boss are unlikely to put themselves on the line for their company. But this can be
fixed!

Harvard Business Review found that 70% of people are most engaged if senior
leadership updates them about what’s going on with the company as a whole.

As a leader, you’re in a great position – you can be transparent with employees and let
them know what’s going on. In turn, they’ll be more engaged and regard you as a
better leader.

9. Create a Feedback System

It’s great that you’ve invested so much in becoming a better leader, but you have to
continually go back to your people to find out how you’re doing.

How to do this? Implement a system for giving feedback, so that your employees always
feel as though they can express themselves when something is wrong. For example,
many companies offer performance reviews on a quarterly basis, but these reviews
should also allow employees to make suggestions to their managers.

10. Keep a good sense of humor. It makes you approachable and it helps you
maintain perspective. Don't take yourself too seriously. Everyone puts their pants
on one leg at a time.

11. Remember that your direct reports are people. They are not resources and they
are not human capitol. They are people with families, feelings, and problems. It is
not possible to separate work from home life. Be aware that people have
personal lives and do the best you can to be sensitive to them. Treat everyone as
your equal regardless of their title or position. [4] Remember to smile a lot and
always maintain a pleasant demeanor.

12. Know your strengths and weakness. Know the strengths of your team as well as
the weakness and allow for improvement.

13. Communicate your expectations. Put them in writing whenever possible. Solicit
feedback from the people you are leading. Know what they expect from you.
Address any discrepancies immediately and clearly.

14. Maintain the confidence of everyone in the organization. Managers frequently

have access to more information than other employees. It is imperative that you
never betray the confidence of the company, your manager, your peers, or your
employees. Be sure that people can confide in you.

15. Be Flexible. You must remain flexible to change directions, change rules, and
change resources to remain competitive.
16. Focus only on solutions and not on problems. People gravitate toward solutions
oriented individuals.
17. Be Consistent. Your actions and reactions must be consistent. You don’t want to
be the type of manager that everyone asks what kind of mood you are in before
they approach you with an issue.[10]