People management skills to build the team of your dreams

If you are working as a manager, then good people management skills are one of the major necessities for you. People management is building a healthy relationship with the employees working under you. When you have a good relationship with the employees, you will be able to support and motivate them to grow, work harder, develop in their role and face new challenges.

5 people management skills to know

Now, the good people management skills that you need as a manager can be learned through experience as well as practice. For your convenience, in this article, we will talk about five people management skills that will help you build a great team, with a strong team spirit.

1. Demonstrating Trust in people management skills

When your employees know that you trust them, it will make them feel empowered and give them a sense of ownership in the work they do. This way, the employees will also have an increase in confidence and will be more ready to take on new challenges. In order to build trust, there is a long-term strategy that you must follow. Some of the points to consider are –

1. Keep your promises
   If you make a promise to your employee, keep it at any cost. Your employee will lose their trust in you if they see that the promises that you are making are empty. In turn, make sure that you are being realistic with your team. Let them know that they can rely on you in case they need any help with good people management skills.
   
2. Give the employees the necessary time and space
   Do not keep checking in on the employee, again and again, to see if they have done a task. This screams out the act that you don’t trust them. If the employee is capable of handling the task, let them do it on their own to have good people management skills. Only offer guidance if they do need help. This will help you in building their problem-solving skills and it wouldn’t seem like you are trying to micromanage.
   
3. Support some risks
   Since you are the manager, employees might come to you with new ideas if they want to take on a new project, expand their skillset and propose a new idea. In such cases, show them your support. This will make them think that you believe in their abilities which will motivate them further.
   
4. Provide explanations
   If you are rejecting any of their ideas, evaluations, or decisions, then provide them the reason for it. Being transparent will build a better relationship between you and your employees whereas being authoritarian and arbitrary will only increase the distance between the two parties. Trust never develops over time. This process needs time and effort from both sides. You have to demonstrate that you trust in their abilities for them to trust you too.

2. Compassionate Feedback

Giving welcoming, and useful feedback is one of the most necessary good people management skills. Be transparent with your employees. They want to hear feedback from their managers about their work so that they can make changes if necessary or at least know if they are doing it right. Now you don’t have to be unnecessarily harsh to them. You should deliver even criticism in such a way that makes them want to do better.

Your feedback needs to be direct and honest. However, it must come from a place of concern. Constructive feedback is when you are informing them what they can improve without insulting them. Along with the feedback, praise them for their efforts too, so that they can understand that they are appreciated.

3. Motivating Others as people management skills

The third one in this list of good people management skills is encouraging your employees to do their best. To do this, you need to know how to motivate them. Your words will also only have an effect on an employee when they see that you are actually listening to them.

Now there might be a situation where someone comes to discuss something important to you but an email notification distracts you. Now in such situations, you can take advantage of the various features of the email management apps like Mailman. The Delivery Slot, Do Not Disturb, and VIP list features makes it extremely easy for you to deal with other such matters like this one and not miss out on any important work either. 

4. Give Credit

As a manager, you must also know how to give credit to someone and praise them whenever necessary. This refers to more than just saying good work to someone. Learn to keep a note of the progress of your employees without being overbearing. You don’t need to keep track of how they are spending every single minute, but do know about their project progress.

Your employees also need to feel appreciated. Now, it is also important that you don’t feel hesitant to push for public praise when a team member deserves it. That is why it is important that you know the preferences of your employees so that you don’t put the employee on the spot or make them feel embarrassed.

5. Distribute the Work

Distributing the work properly amongst your employees is also a part of good people management skills. You need to be aware of the roles of your employees, their interests, and their skills, and what else they need to learn. If you are able to distribute the tasks to the right personnel based on their skills and preferences, then you can say that you are a successful manager. Also, if you have a clear idea then distribution will also become a lot easier.

One thing you should also be careful about is equal distribution. Your aim is to make sure that everyone is moving forward and all the challenges are accepted and completed. For that, you have to make sure that everyone is working equally and the whole stress is not falling upon the high performers. This also allows every member to enjoy a better work life balance.

Lead the way with good people management skills

The basis of people management skills is to know your employees as much as you can. This enables you to be a skilled manager and implement the good people management skills that you have practiced most effectively. These skills will allow you to achieve the best performance from your employees to ensure the happiness of both the parties.