#135: Don't misunderstand your employees

Why should you bother to understand your employees? Simply put, understanding people enables you to influence them.

Consider the skills required at different levels of management. At lower levels of the hierarchy, technical skills matter most; at top management level, conceptual skills matter more. The one skill common to all levels of management is that of being able to work with and through people.

You do need to understand an employee if you want to communicate your wishes clearly, and to predict her behavior accurately when allocating tasks and setting deadlines.

And yet, managers can be very insensitive to what really matters to employees. According to research conducted more than 30 years ago, what workers said they wanted most from their jobs was rated as least important by their superiors.

Don’t be surprised if this research finding still applies today. Do you really understand what your employees want most from their work?


I’m james@nonsenseatwork.com

Copyright: 2007 James Henry McIntosh

James can be heard on Public Radio, 88.9 FM WCVE, Richmond VA.
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