Managing People: the Sisyphean Challenge
(sixth in a series titled Issues Managers Face in the Workplace)
You are out of energy. Sunk. Tired. Thankless job, managing people. Your employees come at you via phone, email, in person. They have real problems: with their work, their attitude, their families, their careers, even with you. And now you share those problems. That’s all part of the job.
This reminds me of Sisyphus, the king whose punishment was to roll a huge boulder up a big hill, only to see it roll back to the bottom: for eternity. (thanks to Jim Stroup at Managing Leadership for the classics inspiration!)
Managing the Input
Managing people should encompass a fair amount of your time each day. Not all your time. Constant interruptions may not allow you to concentrate on the rest of the non-people work you are tasked with completing each day. How do you ensure you are supporting your people and still reaching other goals?
- Know your people. (see post #4 of this series)
- Set up regular one-on-one sessions with each team member. These could be weekly, bi-weekly, monthly. Whatever rhythm works.
- Handle emergencies immediately. The better you know your people, the easier to recognize a real emergency versus a high maintenance employee.
The Power of the Filter
The filter is my analogy for exercising discernment and discretion in your conversations with your team. You do not need to completely mask your emotions. You do need to keep them in check and under control.
- When an employee bounds into your office and needs to speak with you, put down your work, remove your hands from your keyboard, and listen.
- Think before replying. Seriously.
- Give the gift of time, not lecture. Listening will do more good than a lengthy diatribe on what you as the manager think should be done. Isn’t this how you would want to be treated by your manager?
Managing the Output
Taking on all the worries and struggles of your team is a mighty burden. Ensure you have an output for the overwhelming feelings you may encounter. Exercise, a mentor, a friend. Be able to talk about your stresses at work. You should not break a confidence of one of your employees. This doesn’t prevent you from discussing challenges with your support network. Leave out the names or identifying details. Over time, you’ll learn that caring takes emotion, listening takes discipline, scheduling takes patience, and leading takes courage.
You wouldn’t have it any other way.
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Stumble it!
Joe Raasch :: Jan.15.2008 :: Employee Engagement, Leadership, Personal :: 6 Comments »
Joe,
Thanks for the kind reference!
The comparison of the manager’s task in managing people with Sisyphus’s burden is a good one – a bracing caution for people entering the profession who think they can just allocate assets and give orders, then get back on the phone with their stock brokers.
It is a heavy, and constantly renewing, burden. The difference between the manager (especially the one who follows the advice in this post) and Sisyphus is that the manager’s task is a reward, not a punishment, and one that refreshes and energizes as it is performed.
I am enjoying this series very much – it is filled both with immediately practical take-aways and insights for continued reflection. Looking forward to more!
Hi Jim,
Thank you for lifting up a key point from the post: “It is a heavy, and constantly renewing, burden.” Managing people, when done with care, commitment, and a servant’s heart, can be a career that “refreshes and energizes” versus a punishment.
-Joe
A heavy and constantly renewing burden, yes, and often more like pushing Jello uphill than a rock.
Thursday humor = Management Consulting, brought to you by Bill Cosby LLC. Sorry.
Wally, you’re right. Wouldn’t it be grand if a glimpse of the reality of the “heavy and constantly renewing burden” be shown to those considering a management role?
It’s amazing how little we work to make anyone’s decision to assume group responsibility an informed decision. Art Petty and Rich Petro do it very well in their book, Practical Lessons in Leadership. I reviewed the book on my site back in October.
http://blog.threestarleadership.com/2007/10/13/an-excellent-practical-book-on-leadership.aspx
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