FREE online courses on Maximum Managing People - Dealing With People - Dealing with Pressure

 

The most unnerving thing about business is that pressure is the key. Pressure is something that can build up to unsustainable heights, just as easily as it can subside. Thus in order to ride out high pressure points we need to operate on a fundamentally balanced platform. Learning to promote pressure is all a part of what business is all about. Always remember, in life there are tremendous sources of pressure.

 

So make a conscious effort to understand the pros and cons of pressure. See what are the basic supporting arguments. Then evolve control features which can help you underwrite pressure to your advantage. It can become a tool applied in a well chosen manner to support underlying objectives.

 

The control feature creates images of viciousness by heavy handed corporate bullies. This is an apt description but not necessarily accurate. Properly applied pressure need not be a butcher's bludgeon but can evolve into a skilled surgeon's knife. Business, like life, is after all a blood sport.

 

The key to maneuvering people is to instill emotional accountability. Play on their emotions and they will perform. Also the people involved must be made into functionally independent units who have a core level of training.

 

Use reverse psychology to bend people to your will. If, for example, you are upset with the performance of your divisional manager, then when you both go to lunch, let him pay. He will get the message regarding his poor performance and will take steps to improve.

 

Have great teams to back you up.  The team, which is closest to you, must protect your work product and the interfaces with your business life and personal life. The team must be great at keeping everything together whether.  Even if it refers to the cleaner in your house, the driver, mailman, etc. These are all indispensable service individuals.

 

Do not assume that a good employee who adjusts well is giving you the right standard. Push for your standards.

 

When you deal with people, find out their weak points quickly. This helps in allowing you to modify any excessive tendencies they have.  This will unearth their real character base, helping you to judge and place them more effectively.

 

When Former German Chancellor Helmut Schmidt was attempting to describe the rise in US stock prices, he described US fund managers as psychopaths. He took them to be proof of excessive behavior. He forgot that it was a systemic maneuvering of people to buy more and more stocks. This tendency is not germane to the fund manager but a manipulation of his/her reason for being.

 

Thus a key to maneuvering people is to indicate to them their role. The ability to generate real growth for your firm is getting people to do things the way you want. The idea is that:

‘This is the way it's done. And this is the only way it can be done.'

 

The versatile business world of today in which we exist uses judicial toughness as its strongest barometer. This means that generating profits is not meant to be easy. It will require many jumps through an obstacle course.

 

When money flows in your direction, you can afford to slow down and be less tough. As the money flow reduces, you must upgrade your toughness. In such situations you will need people who can work while keeping expenses down.

 

Many management books talk about Type A, B and C personalities.  While I have never found Type A's easy to work with as their nature which often makes them difficult to control, nonetheless, I recognize their ability in absolute terms.

 

Use controls to mediate any gladiatorial penchants of employees.  Seek in general to limit jealousy, and attempts to move onto the turf of others.

 

The conceptual foundation is to put all people on a controlled return risk reward model. Type B & C personalities usually have stronger controls due to reduced ambitions. Look for extreme levels of cooperation based on cultural desires and hidden agendas. These can prove stronger than management theories.

 

Another important tool for dealing with people is to understand that it is important to adapt work to the life interests of the person. There are ranges of life interests, which are likely to stimulate the worker. They are as follows:

1.       Be part of a team

2.       Be part of a technology

3.       Control your own technology driven firm

4.       Be involved with quantitative analysis

5.       Get involved with counseling and teaching

6.       Be involved with language and ideas

 

Failure to incorporate someone's life interests in their job may not necessarily result in failure at the job.  However it risks creating poor job satisfaction amongst workers.  In my personal case control over my own work process is essential. I must be handling and coordinating most aspects of my work and, very significantly, my life work interface.

 

Responding to employee needs and wants by stimulating their desire to explore their life interests will result in a conducive situation. They will more likely stay with your firm while having a desire to work harder. This is the best of both worlds for you.

 

Be aware of the fact that when dealing with people you may not always have the upper hand.  Some in-built advantages in certain people allow them to maneuver you as opposed to vice versa. They may have your number.  Everything from your behavior, impulses and the triggers that make them happen they have understood. Stronger natural ability like social skills might result in them controlling you. Another reason might be if you are in a culturally different milieu. For example if you were a non-French manager in a French company, the employees under you may not recognize your authority.  They may unofficially nominate a French person to unofficially manage them.

 

One last technique which is important is to set up deals with 'holding people'. These are individuals who temporarily control fluctuating situations. At the same time they manage to keep collections of information relevant to particular deals and facilitate transferal when all is ready. Their strengths are a patience to keep watch and a belief in the ratio of success. In other words, they understand that not all will work well and most things have to be kept on the backburner until the right time. Use them wisely to keep a quiet watch on nascent situations – a form of silent watch on future deals.