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As I began my career, this comment didn’t necessarily resonate. I was solely responsible for myself in the beginning. I had deadlines, projects, and objectives. All aspects of my job that I could manage on my own due to personally overseeing their completion. If something needed to get done, I simply performed the task and checked it off my list. These were simpler times. As I progressed in my field, I acquired more responsibility, which in turn lead to more employees under my leadership.
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Being a new manager, I assumed my employees would adapt to my easy going, hands off approach.
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Through the years I’ve managed anywhere from one to 130 employees. Without hesitation or shame, managing people has been the hardest task I’ve attempted to tackle in my career. I love people, talking with them, listening to their stories, getting to know what they care about, and genuinely taking interest in their well-being. From an early going, I believed that these attributes would assist me in my supervisory status, but I was then quickly awakened by some stark realities.
Everyone, and I can’t emphasize this enough, everyone deals with personal life issues while at work. You can try to create a divide from work and life personas, but the truth is that feelings and attitudes overlap. This made me mindful to people’s unbeknownst situations. I strived to be understanding and accommodating. The reality is that personal struggles occasionally impact work. I wasn’t always sympathetic to this plight as a new manager, but have since arrived at an understanding that we all, at some time or another, will be preoccupied while at work. It doesn’t mean employees don’t care, it just means there is competition for their undivided attention.
I learned that you absolutely can’t manage everyone in the same way. The old adage of fitting a square peg into a round hole kept coming to mind while learning to manage others. A misconception new supervisors have is expecting their employees to adapt to their managing style. Although this approach has been endlessly used, it has been proven to be the least effective in maximizing your staff’s potential.
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Every single employee I’ve ever managed has been motivated by something unique to them.
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Being a new manager, I assumed my employees would adapt to my easy going, hands off approach. While some loved my managing style, other employees needed constant feedback and increased positive reinforcement. I discovered the true meaning of having to dig deep into your tool kit. In the way that a sledge hammer shouldn’t be used for fine detailed jobs, I couldn’t apply my same managing style across the board to all employees.
Don’t ever underestimate motivation. As the naïve new manager that I once was, I assumed that everyone worked hard because they took pride in their work, wanted to make a positive impact, and believed in what they were doing. However, I had to take another dose of bitter reality. Every single employee I’ve ever managed has been motivated by something unique to them. Some worked to provide for their family, some worked for personal advancement and promotions, some worked for their sense of self-worth, while others worked for the sheer love of their company’s product. Once I realized that everyone works for their own personal reasons (with earning a paycheck being the underlying common theme), I understood that incentivizing performance only works for what motivates employees.
The learning curve that accompanies a new manager is dangerously steep. As difficult of a task that it is, managing people has also been the most rewarding. Observing an employee meet their personal goals while contributing to a team’s overall success is especially satisfying. If someone were to ask for my advice on the perils of managing people, I would happily tell them to prepare for a challenging journey, but yet one that undoubtedly will make them stronger.
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Photo: GettyImages
