What People Managers Need to know

I hear so often about the people managers who got to where they are thanks to their technical proficiency and how they've received little to no training on managing people. Sometimes companies get lucky that their managers just “get it,” but often it's not that smooth or simple. It would behoove organizational-level leaders to invest in training their new people managers.

CHART is an acronym that will help new or untrained people managers understand what they need to know. As a people leader, you are “chart”-ing the path for and with your team.

  1. Context and the bigger 'why' - share it.
    As a manager, you can't just put your head down and grind through your work. It's your job to understand the context in which your team sits, and to share that context as appropriate with your team.

  2. How is just as important as what.
    How the work gets done, and how you work as a team are just as important to pay attention to as what the work is. So is how you're speaking to and treating your team, and how their experience of working with you is. How your team works together will directly affect the ‘what’ that you produce. Make the ‘how’ part of where you put your leadership attention.

  3. Alignment is the key.
    Alignment means having enough shared understanding that you can move forward together. If someone you're managing does something that you aren't happy with, that means you need to build more alignment. If possible, let some time pass and debrief what happened after your emotions cool. During the debrief, it's about sharing how you each see the situation, process, or goal, and finding mutual understanding in places where your views may diverge.

    An all-too-common misstep for people managers is to place premature meaning from a lack of alignment onto your direct report's character or skill set, when really it's more straightforward than that. To overcome this tendency, orient yourself to the degree of alignment and work to build shared understanding.

  4. Repetition is normal.
    You will need to repeat the context, your vision, and any other team goals consistently in order to create the environment you want. (See yourself as a designer of the team culture). People hear things when they're ready to, and may not be until the 4th or 5th time you've articulated something. But repetition can help you stay focused as a leader, too.

  5. Transactional vs relational interactions.
    When you interact with your direct reports, your paradigm matters. See them as a partner to whom you relate. If you just consider them a means to an end on some task, or worse, your success, the relationship will erode over time. Sometimes, when there is high trust and things need to move fast, transactional emails flying back and forth can be quite satisfying. But there need to be relationship-based touchpoints at regular intervals.

Notice that these are all externally facing skills. However, skilled people managers must also do their own personal development work. Awareness and execution of the CHART components requires a strong personal foundation. Leadership coaching can help develop that, as well as other self-reflection rituals. 

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Seven Keys to Managing Up