Experience and observations has taught me that effective human managerial skill is an important role in any work environment. The conventional notion of being a "nice" manager, one who is overly accommodating and avoids conflict, has been challenged and proven to be a weak approach to creating a stabilised work behaviour amongst individuals in an organisation: while niceness may be a favourable personal attribute, it is not necessarily the key to good management.
The distinction in these roles is in their inherent strengths and weaknesses with regards to creating balance in the workplace. Let me walk you through these strengths and weaknesses, and hope that we learn and apply in our different areas of human engagement, whether as a superior, a subordinate, or an equal.
The roles of human management skills, which involve empathy, communication, and a focus on productivity, are more valuable in the workplace than simply being nice.
**Why Human Management Skill is prioritised:
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It creates order comportment in the following ways,
Building a Productive Team: Good managers are those who can bring together individuals with diverse skills and personalities, creating a cohesive and productive team. Human management skills involve understanding each team member's strengths, weaknesses, and motivations. By leveraging this understanding, a manager can assign tasks appropriately and empower employees to excel in their roles.
Effective Communication: Successful managers possess excellent communication skills, which help foster transparency, collaboration, and trust within the team. Clear and concise communication ensures that team members understand their responsibilities and objectives, minimises misunderstanding, and encourages open dialogue. This facilitates a more efficient workflow and builds a healthy work environment.
Effective Conflict Resolution: Conflicts are inevitable in a workplace, but the skillful management of these conflicts is what sets effective managers apart. Human management skills enable leaders to address conflicts promptly and fairly, understanding the underlying issues and finding resolutions that benefit all parties involved. Instead of avoiding or glossing over conflicts, managers should embrace them as opportunities for growth and improvement.
Empathy and Emotional Intelligence: Being able to empathise and understand the emotions of employees is a critical aspect of human management. Managers who can relate to their team members' concerns, needs, and wellbeing create a supportive and stimulating work culture. By acknowledging and addressing employees' emotions, managers can foster higher levels of engagement, creativity, and productivity.
On the other and, the capacity of being nice alone limits efficiency in a number of ways as follows:
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**Inablity to enforce Accountability: **Managers who place an excessive emphasis on niceness may inadvertently overlook the importance of holding employees accountable for their actions. By avoiding difficult conversations or critical feedback, niceness can undermine a culture of accountability, potentially hindering individual and organisational growth.
Inability to Make Tough Decisions: Sometimes, managers must make tough decisions that are not necessarily popular or pleasant. A focus on being nice may lead to indecisiveness or delay in making necessary choices that could ultimately benefit the team or organisation. I term this “lack of the ability to do the needful”
Potential for Exploitation: A manager who prioritises being nice above all else may inadvertently create situations where individuals take advantage of leniency or exploit the lack of boundaries. This can result in decreased morale, unfairly distributed workload, conflicts among team members, or/and even confusion in roles.
Favouritism: Nice managers have the tendency to tilt towards certain staff who he probably deems more hardworking, while ignoring other workers on an unfounded, or largely fixable basis.
Finally, while being a nice person is commendable, management in the workplace requires a broader set of skills. Human management skills, encompassing empathy, effective communication, conflict resolution, and accountability, are essential for promoting productivity, fostering positive relationships, and driving success within a team. Managers are expected to find the balance between being likeable and nurturing a conducive work environment through skillful management techniques. By prioritising human management skills, the workplace can flourish with cohesion, productivity, and employee satisfaction.