{"id":2307,"date":"2016-01-21T12:50:39","date_gmt":"2016-01-21T17:50:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ngenperformance.com\/?p=2307"},"modified":"2016-01-21T12:50:39","modified_gmt":"2016-01-21T17:50:39","slug":"i-dont-even-really-like-people","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ngenperformance.com\/?p=2307","title":{"rendered":"\u201cI Don\u2019t Even Really Like People\u2026\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>When working with people, leaders &#8211; particularly those who have been promoted into senior roles because of their strong technical skills &#8211; often secretly admit to me that they \u201cdon\u2019t even really like people!\u201d The comment is usually made out of frustration with having to spend \u201cso much time on people issues\u201d, instead of what they consider to be \u201creal business\u201d issues. The challenge for these leaders is recognizing that the real business they are in is <em>leading others.<\/em> And that for their team and organization to excel they need to focus on how to motivate, engage, inspire, inform and increase the performance of the people who report to them.<\/p>\n<h2>People Leadership Skills Essential to Success<\/h2>\n<p>Every client I speak with in HR and\/or Talent Management laments about the same challenge in their organization: the need is to evaluate people leadership skills.\u00a0 The audience may differ, sometimes front line managers need more introductory learning on how to effectively lead and manage. Other times, middle managers are the focus because they are squeezed between senior leadership who sets the strategic direction, and front line leaders who execute it.\u00a0 Those in the middle require support on how to motivate, engage, coach and better manage performance. Occasionally clients will engage us because there are some senior leaders in their organization that aren\u2019t \u201cpeople focused enough\u201d and therefore need a refresher on strategic impact and risks of not properly managing the organization\u2019s human capital.<\/p>\n<p>Overall the most common leadership gaps are:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Performance management <\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>o\u00a0\u00a0 Providing feedback<\/p>\n<p>o\u00a0\u00a0 Conducting difficult conversations<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Change management<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>o\u00a0\u00a0 Shifting the workplace culture<\/p>\n<p>o\u00a0\u00a0 Embracing a more collaborative leadership style<\/p>\n<p>o\u00a0\u00a0 Creating a diverse and inclusive environment<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Motivating employees \u2013 particularly diverse workforces<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Communication skills<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Managing and Engaging Gen Ys \/ Millennials<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Retaining high performing employees<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>How to drive performance<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>o\u00a0\u00a0 Building a high performing team<\/p>\n<h3>What To Do When Leaders Are Disengaged?<\/h3>\n<p>Leaders and managers often struggle with how to close their learning gaps because they themselves are feeling disengaged.\u00a0 They are over-worked, overwhelmed and \u201cso over\u201d the corporate rhetoric that they are the ones responsible for getting, keeping and engaging the right employees, at the right time.\u00a0 They say they just want to do the job they were hired to do. They want to be amazing engineers or accountants or technical experts in their field.\u00a0 Focusing on the \u2018soft\u2019 skills isn\u2019t what they signed up for.\u00a0 The biggest obstacle to engaging employees are leaders who feel disconnected from their role as a people leader and feel they are being asked to offer something to their teams (collaboration, open communication, clear performance expectations) that they don\u2019t receive from those above them.<\/p>\n<p>Before your leaders can be effective, they need to be highly engaged.<\/p>\n<p>You can achieve that by:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>Focusing on their development\n<ul>\n<li>What formal and informal learning do they require?<\/li>\n<li>How can more senior leaders get involved?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<ol start=\"2\">\n<li>Rewarding the right behaviours\n<ul>\n<li>Are observable behaviours clearly outlined?<\/li>\n<li>How will demonstrating strong people skills be rewarded financially and non-financially?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<ol start=\"3\">\n<li>Supporting and valuing their efforts\n<ul>\n<li>What support needs to be provided to them to be successful?<\/li>\n<li>How will they feel valued for their people leadership contributions?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p><strong>Offer An Out<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>If strong technical leaders don\u2019t want to pursue people leadership roles often there isn\u2019t anywhere else for them to grow in the organization.\u00a0 The only way up the traditional corporate ladder is to manage people and have direct reports. This isn\u2019t appealing for many experts, especially those that take great joy in their functional tasks and wish to remain high performing individual contributors.\u00a0 Some studies suggest that Millennials (Gen Ys) are less likely to desire taking on management roles as they progress in their careers.\u00a0 They are opting out of the typical career path of \u201cup or out\u201d and are instead seeking roles that tap into their strengths and values while offering work-life integration. This desire to remain \u201cin the business\u201d instead of leading the business may cause a gap in organizations as the talent pool for people leadership roles is diminished.<\/p>\n<p>Many of our clients have created parallel tracks for individual contributors, which allows a high performing employee to rise in the organization without having to take on the responsibility of leading and managing others.\u00a0 This is a great op-out option for those that don\u2019t desire leading others, yet want to continue to grow in their roles. Don\u2019t try to force a square peg into a round hole.\u00a0 Focus on the strengths of your workforce and develop those that are eager to learn and want to expand their comfort zone by becoming a strong people leader. \u00a0If someone really doesn\u2019t like people, let\u2019s not spend our time, money and energy shifting that attitude. Instead offer an alternate growth path and engage someone who wants to learn.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>When working with people, leaders &#8211; particularly those who have been promoted into senior roles because of their strong technical skills &#8211; often secretly admit to me that they \u201cdon\u2019t even really like people!\u201d The comment is usually made out &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ngenperformance.com\/?p=2307\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":2309,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[58],"tags":[90,16,193],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ngenperformance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2307"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ngenperformance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ngenperformance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ngenperformance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ngenperformance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2307"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.ngenperformance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2307\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2310,"href":"https:\/\/www.ngenperformance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2307\/revisions\/2310"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ngenperformance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2309"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ngenperformance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2307"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ngenperformance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2307"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ngenperformance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2307"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}