Managing People Needs Discipline

Managing People Needs Discipline
By: Victor S.L Tan

The test of discipline is its practice on a consistent manner. So, many people find it difficult to lose weight because while they have the discipline to avoid eating excessively, they do not practice this habit consistently. Likewise, there are many leaders who have the discipline to maintain their calm when all things are going fine, but when a crisis comes along (be it personal or organisational), the leader blows his top and starts screaming at others in an uncontrolled fashion.

Managing people professionally requires leaders to practise the discipline of control of one's temper in a consistent manner. Leaders who are calm and collected during crisis win tremendous empathy and support from their subordinates. And it is with this empathy and support that leaders need from their people to help smoothen the crisis and overcome such difficult times.

LEADERS WHO PROVIDE DIRECTION AND SUPPORT. Managing people in a haphazard manner without clear direction not only reflects the lack of professionalism, but also creates a sense of frustration in people.

Managing people professionally calls for leaders to avoid the managing-by-crisis approach. Too often, leaders are pre-occupied with 'fire fighting' every day to have time to think about how to have time to think about how to 'prevent fires'.

Just like any fire department, the efficient firemen focus on how fast they can put off fires while the effective firemen focus on understanding the root causes of how fires are started`and find the right strategies to educate people to prevent fires. The former is a short-term strategy while the latter is a long-term strategy. the short-term strategy will not work if the long-term strategy is wrong.

So, managing people professionally calls for leaders to get the long-term strategy right through proper planning with a clear direction to enable people to be effective-that is doing the right things. This should enable the success of the short-term strategy which is to provide the necessary to ensure that people are efficient-that is doing things right.

LEADERS WHO DEVELOP AND REWARD PEOPLE. Managing people professionally is more than just getting people to achieve organisational goals effectively and efficiently. It requires leaders to grow and develop people. Leaders who do not understand this role find that they face problems retaining good performers.

One of the challenges facing human resource practitioners today is retaining talent. To retain them, leaders need to institute career planning and succession planning in their organisation. Work truly is the no. 1 reward, followed by money. It is then the role of leaders to recognise people's performance through reward. having career planning and succession planning is good way to reflect an organisation's professionalism in developing and rewarding its staff.

LEADERS WHO ARE COMMITTED TO POSITIVE CHANGE. No leaders can claim to exhibit professionalism if they are not committed to positive change. People are not amused by leaders who preach about change, but embrace status quo. They do not find it logical for leaders to talk about innovation, but do not allow risk taking. They find it odd that leaders would position their organisation with positive goals, but are negative in their attitude and disposition.

Managing people professionally requires more than paying lip service to change. It requires leaders to be committed to positive change in their beliefs, through the positive actions and support they provide towards the agenda that will create the desired results.

LEADERS WHO ARE COURAGEOUS TO TAKE ACTION TO ACHIEVE DESIRED GOALS. The ultimate rule in any endeavour of achievement is action. It has been said that all the lovely sentiments in the world would weigh less than a single lovely action. To take action requires more than just knowledge and expertise; it requires courage and risk taking. Here lies the crucial test of a leader's commitment. A leader's commitment is judged by not what he believes, but by his actions.

So, if a leader believes in fairness, then he must take the bold action to defend fairness. This may require the leaders to stick his neck out, take personal risks and be unpopular. Yet these are what authentic leaders who are committed to a high degree of professionalism must do - take courageous actions on what is right rather than what is safe and convenient.

The Writer
The writer is chief executive officer of KL Strategic Change Consulting Group. He can be contacted at 603-9074-1129 or email: victorsltan@klcc.com or visit www.klcc.com.

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