{"id":653,"date":"2019-01-14T11:57:03","date_gmt":"2019-01-14T11:57:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.l1n.nl\/?p=653"},"modified":"2019-02-12T18:30:10","modified_gmt":"2019-02-12T18:30:10","slug":"people-management-is-not-difficult","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.l1n.nl\/en\/article\/people-management-is-not-difficult\/","title":{"rendered":"People Management is not difficult!"},"content":{"rendered":"

So many books have been written about People Management that you almost think it is difficult. I have also read a number of these books and I have been inspired by some of them (e.g. “Leading Change”<\/a> by John P. Kotter\u00a0and\u00a0“What got you here won\u2019t get you there\u201d<\/a> by Marshall Goldsmith).<\/p>\n

Admitting mistakes<\/strong><\/span>
\nMy primary personal lesson however has been that my own ideas are frequently not the best ones and it pays off to listen carefully (but critically) to the people around me.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve always remembered one specific situation, from my first job as a production manager. In a cost reduction effort, I wanted to change the production schedule to a smaller crew. Despite strong and emotional resistance from the factory I pushed through but promised to be present on the shop floor in the first week between 6am and 10pm to see the results. Half way down the week it became clear to me that the new schedule wouldn\u2019t work. I gathered the people, admitted my mistake and reversed the change. To my surprise I found myself much more accepted as their manager than before this incident, despite the fact that I had implemented successful cost reductions before this moment. Only later I understood that admitting my mistake and reversing my action showed my willingness to take people seriously. They just weren\u2019t used to that.<\/p>\n

Facilitate<\/strong><\/span>
\nWhat I\u2019ve learned in the years after that is mostly: Don\u2019t make thinks more difficult than they are!<\/p>\n

You already make a difference with a few, rather obvious, guidelines:<\/p>\n