Why is managing others hard?
Why is managing other people very hard in today’s time?
Lets take a somewhat empathetic view about the real difficulties of managing other people, in today’s times.
The truth is that not many are really enjoying managing other people and that joy seems to be diminishing by the day.
Why is it so?
There might be at least five personal truths that people hold about the teams they manage which might be influencing their views about managing other people.
The first personal truth is that it just does not pay to invest in building relationships with the people I manage. Why would someone come to that conclusion?
Over a period of time, people may have had many not so pleasant experiences in trying to hire people, in trying to retain them, motivate them and pushing for their progress. The people they banked on may have left or did not contribute and they finally were left to deal with the consequences. That may have led them to the conclusion that it just doesn’t pay to invest in building team relationships.
The second personal truth is that I just don’t understand the people I manage. Harsh as it may sound, it is true that managers often struggle to understand the lives and times of the people they manage – how they live their lives, the choices they make, what they value, their priorities, their interests, their world views and so on. They might say this, especially about people who are younger than them and people who are different from them. How am I supposed to manage them when I don’t understand them, they might say and that’s quite true.
The third personal truth is that I don’t have the time. That I am so overwhelmed with the task demands placed on me that I just don’t have the time. Given these overwhelming demands, managing other people seems like an interruption to doing what is expected of them. As a result, Managers are seldom available to their teams.
The fourth personal truth is that It seems to be more convenient to use processes, technology, digital aids and everything else to manage my relationship with my team. So, I have WhatsApp groups, I have Zoom calls or team calls, I have KPIs, I have goal sheets, I have incentives and other means to manage performance and secure results. While it was intended to free up manager time to actually engage in deep conversations, that is not the reality.
The fifth personal true and maybe the most difficult one is people managers say that they just don’t have the mind space for others. They might say that they have their own issues and challenges to deal with and beyond that, they just don’t have the mind space for others right now.
If we want our managers to enjoy working with other people and manage them well, we will need to engage with them on these and other personal truths that they hold and help them arrive at a more balanced view and attitude towards their people.
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