How to Become a 5-Star People Manager

by Alex Castillo

Winning Solutions to Help Achieve Excellence in Management and leadership

Why do you need to be a 5-Star people manager?

• Managers achieve results through people
• Your effectiveness depends on how well you manage people
• The core differentiator of an organization is not its product or service, but the
quality of its people
• Every business is ultimately a people business

Workshop Goals
• To equip you with practical tools to deal with day-to-day people
management issues
• To provide a strategic framework to address major people
management problems
• To learn how excellent people managers behave and what you need to do to
develop these behaviors

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 Exercise Self Appraisal
How good a manager/people manager are you?
Put a check under the appropriate number: 1- Outstanding 2 - Very Good 3 - Good 4 - Needs Improvement 5 - Unacceptable

1. Performance evaluation (60%) 1 2 3 4 5

I achieve results expected of me.

2. Work Methods evaluation (40%) 1 2 3 4 5

I establish objectives for me and my people.

I organize to accomplish my objectives.

I make decisions in an orderly way.

I utilize my time and the time of others efficiently.

I have good technical skills relevant to my job.

Overall rating management of tasks (Sum of ratings/5)

I define and diagnose problems accurately.

I am able to sift through relevant information to arrive at the real issue.

I am able to evaluate, select, and recommend the best alternatives.

Overall rating analytical skills (Sum of ratings/3)

I work effectively with people.

I put my people “in the loop” on matters affecting them.

I communicate well-verbally.

I communicate well-in writing.

I elicit respect from people I work with.

Overall rating interpersonal skills (Sum of ratings/5)

I give clear guidelines and directions.

I am able to motivate my people to achieve our goals.

I appraise my people’s performance regularly.
I coach and give counsel to my people as appropriate.

I provide the appropriate training for my people.

Overall rating supervisory skills (Sum of ratings/5)

I have good discernment/make good judgments.
I take the initiative and don’t wait to be told.

I am flexible and adaptable.

I take calculated risks when I feel it is appropriate.

I am able to control my emotions to perform well under pressure.

Overall rating personal work characteristics (Sum of ratings/5)

Sub-total Work Methods (Sum of Overall Ratings/5 x .40)

Overall Rating (Performance Rating x .60 + Sub-total of Work Methods rating)
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4 “Burning Issues” in People Management
1. Structural and process clarity
2. Authority versus influence
3. Mentoring, coaching and empowerment
4. Attitudes and culture

How to Become a 5-Star People Manager

1. Make sure 5 structures and processes are in place.
2. Become a person of influence, not just one of authority.
3. Mentor and coach, then empower your people.
4. Cultivate the right attitudes to develop a winsome culture.

1 Make sure 5 structures and processes are in place.

Principles
1. Structure and processes govern thinking, which derives behavior and results.
2. Structure and processes provide order, promote discipline,
and combat subjectivity.
3. The absence of key structures and processes prevent effective
people management.
a. Purpose: Is the mission clear?
“Honor God, make disciples”

b. Direction: Is there a compelling vision?

“Disciples making disciples in every campus, in every nation, in our generation”

c. Expectations: Are there clear job descriptions?

Elements of a Job Description:
• Basic purpose
• Principal accountabilities
• Reporting relationships
• Decision-making authority
• Knowledge and skills required

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 d. Standards: Is there a performance appraisal system?
Elements of a performance appraisal system:
• Job descriptions
• Annual and/or multi-year goals
• Performance appraisal form
• Performance appraisal process
e. Career direction: Are there career paths and are people aware of them?

Sample Company Career Paths

Sales:
1. Key Account Specialist
2. Key Account Supervisor
3. Associate Unit Manager
4. Unit Manager
5. Group Sales Manager
6. National Sales Manager
7. Sales Director
8. VP Sales
Marketing:
1. Brand Assistant
2. Assist Brand Manager
3. Brand Manager
4. Senior Brand Manager
5. Group Brand Manager
6. Category Manager
7. Marketing Director
8. VP Marketing

Every Nation/Victory Career Tracks

• Pastorate
• Campus Ministry
• Church Operations
• Local Church Planting
• World Missions
• LifeBox
• Church Administration

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 2 Become a Person of Influence, not just one of Authority.

Leadership is influence. Nothing more, nothing less.

J. Oswald Chambers

Persons of authority only get compliance—the minimum required.

Persons of influence get commitment—the maximum possible from the people
they lead.

Cultivate commitment by building strong relationships.

What is the quality of your relationships?

Exercise How strong are your relationships?

Think of 4 work and 2 home relationships. Rate how each person thinks of you, overall,
in terms of trustworthiness, sincerity, openness, fairness, and approachability.
Encircle the appropriate number.
Needs Very
Name Poor Improvement Good Good Excellent

1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

4. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

5. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

6. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

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 Exercise How well do you know the person?
What are this person’s . . .

Name Interests Dreams Frustrations Joys Fears

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

Strengthen relationships by being a genuinely caring person.

People respond well and commit to managers who care for them.

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 Exercise Showing Genuine Interest in People
Below is a list of basic information and reflection/conviction questions. Pair up with somebody
and take turns interviewing your partner using questions you have individually pre-selected
from each list.

Basic Information Questions

1. Where is your hometown? Where did you grow up?
2. What schools did you attend in elementary and high school?
3. What were your extra-curricular activities in high school?
4. What college did you attend?
5. What made you choose that college?
6. What course did you take up in college?
7. What made you choose that course?
8. What is your first job? How did you get it?
9. How many companies have you worked for since then?
10. Do you plan to take post-graduate studies?
11. Which job did you enjoy the most? Why?
12. Why did you choose your present job?
13. Do you see yourself staying in your present company long term? Why?

Reflection/Conviction Questions
1. Who has influenced your life the most and why?
2. What is your definition of success?
3. What has been your greatest accomplishment so far?
4. If you could turn back the hands of time, what in your life would you change,
if anything? Why?
5. Who are the most important people in your life right now?
6. What are the most precious lessons you have learned in your career so far? How many
of those lessons changed you?
7. What event in history has had the most influence in your life? Why?
8. If you had the power to improve anything in you, what would it be?
9. If you had the power to change anything in the world, what would it be?
10. Have you reached a point in your life when you made a serious commitment to a cause
or belief? How did you get to that point?
11. What is the most significant help you have given to someone else? How did that feel?
12. What is the most important legacy that would you like to leave to your friends
and family?
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Persons of influence take the initiative to care for their people
• Indifference: the greatest disease of all
• The open door policy revisited
• Empathy: the great heart, mind, and ear opener
• Policies: made by people, to balance the interests of employees, customers,
and business owners

Persons of Influence Cultivate Integrity, the Foundation of Influence

The Simple Case for Integrity in Managing People:

• If people don’t trust you they won’t follow you
• They won’t commit to give you their best
• You cannot grow your business without committed people

What is Integrity?
• Do I demonstrate character in my decisions?
• Do I respect my people as individuals?
• Do I recognize the contributions of my people to the
organization’s effectiveness?

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 Self Appraisal Am I a Person of Integrity?
Rate yourself either 1 or 0 (Integrity is an absolute issue)

Do I do what is right regardless of the consequences?

Am I faithful to my core values no matter where I am

or who I am with?

Do I publicly acknowledge the contributions of others

in my accomplishments?

Do I assume responsibility for my mistakes, asking for

forgiveness as needed?

3 Mentor, coach, then empower your people.

Do you mentor your people?

Is anyone mentoring you?

The Mentoring Imperative

If you don’t spend the time
Goals

Leader fills in
to mentor your people, your team the gap

will not have the capacity Who fills

the gap?
Leader fills in
the gap

to achieve breakthrough goals.

YOUR PEOPLE’S COMPETENCE LEVEL
As a leader-manager, you will fall
Time: Year 1 Year 2 Year 3
into the “Gap Trap.”
The Gap Trap: Who fills the gap?

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Mentoring Principles
• You are the model. If you do not continue to develop and grow, your example
will affect those below you
• Your people will do what they see you do
• You can’t really teach what is right unless you do what is right.

1. List down what you do that you want your people to do also.

2. List down what you do that you don’t want your people to do.

The 4-Step Training Cycle

• I do it, you observe me (presumes trainer knows the job)
• You do it, I observe you (trainer gives feedback)
• You do it on your own, I empower you (trainer delegates)
• You do it, someone else is observing you (full cycle)

The Coaching Logic: Focus on Strengths, not Weaknesses

• We contribute based on our strengths
• Focusing on weaknesses is very inefficient, in fact futile
• Manage weaknesses, don’t attempt to improve them

The Challenge of Empowerment: Why do many leaders not empower

their people?
• They have not trained their people well
• They fell threatened
• They have low self-esteem

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Self Appraisal How Empowering a Leader are you?
Rate yourself in a scale of 10, 1 being the lowest.

I give my people freedom of style and method.

I praise my people in public as they grow in their jobs.

I am happy when others get praised for what

they learned from me.

I plan to develop a successor to replace me.

I gladly support a teammate when he or she

assumes a new leadership role.

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 4 Cultivate the right attitudes to develop a winsome culture.

“When we cannot change a situation we are forced to change ourselves . . .

choosing one’s attitude in any given situation is the last of one’s freedoms.”
Victor Frankl
Nazi Concentration Camp survivor

Cultivating the right attitudes towards---yourself and others---helps you sustain

a caring leadership style, which develops a winsome team culture.

What is your attitude towards yourself?

“For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son,
that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.”
John 3:16

Exercise Self Appraisal

What is your attitude towards others?
Instructions: Mark the appropriate box to score yourself on the questions using the following scale:
1- Not at all 2 - Rarely 3 - Sometimes 4 - Often 5 - All the time

1 2 3 4 5

I cultivate relationships without any hidden agenda.

I easily elicit the support and respect of others.

I readily forgive an offense to avoid becoming bitter.

I am considerate of the feelings of others.

I am more of an encourager than a critic.

I feel independent enough from the approval others.

I do not take disagreement with my views personally.

I take criticism well.

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Focus on collaboration—not combat—and seek win-win solutions.
(Conflict is inevitable, but combat is optional.)

Learn to ask for forgiveness . . . and learn to forgive.

Leadership becomes inspirational when it is sacrificial. You sacrifice your

selfishness in the service of others.

What values motivate you and your team?

The motivators below are listed at random. Rank them according to your preference.
1- the most preferred and 13 - the least preferred

Motivator Rank

1 Opportunity to be promoted

2 An inspiring work culture

3 Prospect of being assigned abroad

4 Feeling of being involved

5 Work that challenges me

6 Lifetime employment

7 Compensation and benefits

8 Recognition for my contributions

9 Work that is interesting/stimulating

10 Chance to learn and develop

11 Caring superiors

12 Superiors who trust me

13 Nice office

14 Others

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Top 3 motivators valued by employees
1. Challenging/Interesting work
2. Recognition
3. Being involved

The Impact of Values

Values Decisions

Decisions Behavior

Behavior Results

(Values drive results)

Elements of a Strong Team Culture (The Invisible Supervisor)

• Shared mission and vision
• Shared motivator and values
• Shared information (transparency and frankness)
• Shared success experiences
• Values promoted visibly and consistently by the leader’s personal example
• Shared anecdotes that promote mission, vision, and values

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 CONCLUSION Can I be a 5-star better people manager and still have a life?

First Things First: You Should Have a Life

• Happy people tend to be better people managers.
• Your joy will rub off on your people.
• Joyful workers are more productive workers.
• Their joy at work will rub off on their families, and that rubs off at work.
• It’s a virtuous cycle.

As a manager-leader, your goal is to create an environment that promotes

the development of your people’s strengths and empowers them to achieve
their—and your—full potential. This is best achieved if you are a person of joy
and faith.

Ultimately, becoming a 5-Star people manager will help leave a legacy of a godly
work ethic and team culture—in itself a powerful testimony to a broken world .

This journey is a marathon, not a sprint. So pace yourself and your people well.

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APPENDIX 1: Job (Mission) Description: Victory Campus Missionary

Basic Purpose:
1. To make disciples of high school and college students by engaging, establishing,
equipping, and ultimately empowering them to make God-honoring disciples themselves
2. To ensure that a discipleship-making ministry in the assigned campus is perpetuated
through the continuous development of discipleship-making students among all years
or batches
3. To live and work to honor God and be a good testimony of the Lord Jesus, so others are
inspired to do the same

Primary Accountabilities:
1. To regularly visit the assigned campus, ensuring a critical mass of time is spent on the 4E’s
2. To continuously create opportunities to engage students, faculty, and school
administration officials to make a way for the gospel to reach students and to disciple
those who respond
3. To ensure that the new student believer, when deemed ready, is connected to a local
Victory church by creating and/or capitalizing on available bridging events
and other opportunities
4. To help the local church create opportunities for the new student believer to go through
the 4E’s by assisting in the church’s youth-oriented activities and events
5. To identify and focus on potential leaders from the pool of new student believers and
equip and empower them to return to the campus to form the next generation
of disciple-makers
6. To raise support and maintain good long-term relationships with MPD partners
7. To serve as a model of Christian love, purify, integrity, and discipline to students and others
8. To perform other functions as directed by the Campus Director

Reporting Relationships:
1. Directly reports to the Regional Campus Director or his equivalent
2. Indirectly reports to Senior Pastor or Youth Pastor of the local Victory church

Decision-making Authority:
1. Makes all discipleship-related decisions as well as initiatives specific to assigned campus
2. Refers all decisions that have a financial impact or need specific authorization from the
Regional Campus Director or local Victory Senior Pastor

Knowledge and Skills Required:

1. College graduate
2. Able to engage people one-on-one and communicate to small groupscomfortably
3. Able to engage teachers and school administrators effectively

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APPENDIX 2: Elements of a Performance Appraisal Form

• Evaluation of performance results versus pre-agreed goals

• Evaluation of work methods
- Management of tasks
- Analytical skills
- Interpersonal skills
- Supervision skills
- Personal work characteristics
• Development plans
• Employee comments and feedback
• Development of annual or multi-year goals
• Development of individual annual goals
• Annual performance appraisal draft reviewed and agreed with
evaluator’s supervisor
• Actual performance appraisal meeting of evaluator and person
being evaluated
• Determination of compensationadjustment, if any

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