People supervision

SUPERVISION PEOPLE: YOUR MOST COMPLICATED, MOST SATISFYING TASK

To be an effective manager you must know yourself by examining your motivation for working and wanting to own or run a business. Unless you feel people can be enhanced, developed and "grown," you will undoubtedly be unhappy and unproductive, and more importantly, you will be counterproductive to those you manage. You have five, 10 or 15 years of marketing experience behind you. Or you've headed one or more successful departments. You've reached the point where you can no longer say, "If I were boss...," because you are the boss.
Your decisions, policies, programs and recommendations are the ones to be carried out, and by now, you've also learned that although we live in a democratic society, there's nothing democratic about business. Only one person retains ultimate authority, sets the direction of the organization and makes the ultimate decisions.
Isn't it funny how it always appeared that the boss really had life easy, but rather than the utopia you imagined, you're now faced with a never-ending series of interrelationships. Your days are filled with talking, listening, e-mailing, telephoning, meeting, pleading, negotiating and compromising. On top of that, you are probably the first to arrive and the last to leave, and you have to worry about all departments instead of just one.
Your organizational chart clearly shows that your firm is hierarchical in nature, yet you spend most of your time dealing with people and departments over which you may or may not have direct authority. For example, marketing continually interacts with accounting, to ensure that customers are current; and with engineering, to solve customer problems. Yet these areas are the concern and responsibility of others.
Having the responsibility and getting the job done don't always mix. There must be a better way to manage your job. Your people expect you to be decisive, and you are ... somewhat. But all too often you feel as though your time was wasted and nothing was achieved. So, what's missing? To be an effective manager you must know yourself by examining your motivation for working and wanting to own or run a business. Unless you feel people can be enhanced, developed and "grown," you will undoubtedly be unhappy and unproductive, and more importantly, you will be counterproductive to those you manage. Personal attributes and beliefs affect your every action and can't be separated. While this is fundamentally true, there is not one particular style or set of characteristics that is guaranteed to produce a good manager of people.
The better you understand your own personality, character, goals and limitations, the less likely these aspects or traits will interfere with your management style and capabilities