If you run a small or medium-sized business, it is likely that you run teams or are close to the employees in your business. This is a great position to be in, as your employees work hard to grow your business, but also so you can better understand their point of view and how the business works.
Having employees is one thing, but managing them is another. You might be able to run a business, but managing people is very different. Not only do you need to equip them to do their job and progress, but you also need to consider their health and safety, their wellbeing, and more. To help you best manage your employees, here are some top tips to help you.
Actively listen
Your employees need to feel valued, and one way to do that is by actively listening to them. This will ensure that you hear what they are saying and can help them effectively. Actively listening to your employees will also help you to gather more information and understand each employee better. Every employee will have different needs and different communication methods. The more you listen to them, the more you will be able to understand them and better manage them according to their needs.
Understand your team
You must learn about your team and become familiar with them. Not just their name, but understanding their day-to-day responsibilities, their skills, their capabilities, their strengths and their weaknesses. This will take time to develop, but it will help you understand what they do and why they do it. It can also help you manage your team by drawing on individual strengths, and improving the weaknesses amongst the team with learning.
Give constructive feedback
Feedback is always a really important thing to give employees when you want to manage them better. When you praise your employees, it will reinforce what they are doing well and encourage good performance. It will also make receiving constructive feedback much easier. This is also something you should do, as employees need to know where they are going wrong and what improvements they can make on things like their work and behaviours. Constructive feedback is important for anyone’s progression. Make sure you deliver it nicely and provide context to the situation, as well as solutions and support.
Lead by example
If you want your employees to learn, grow and behave in certain ways, they must have a good leader to follow. You cannot expect your team to perform highly if you are not bothering yourself. You should lead by example, and show your team how you fulfil the expectations that you set for everyone.
Get support
Support is a great thing to obtain when managing employees. You don’t have to do it all by yourself. HR support like Waddington Brown are an excellent option. HR specialists can help you grow and cost-effectively manage your team. They can support you with the administrative work, onboarding, appraisals and more.
Managing a team is not easy and can be quite stressful. Follow these top tips to help you.
