Managing People as People

Whether you’re the doctor in charge of the medical office assistant, the real estate manager in charge of the insurance agent, or the pharmacist in charge of the pharmacy technician you will need to think and act like a manager of people to get things efficiently done at your office. Here are a few tips, by no means complete, from business-management-practices guru David Maister to get you started. 

Do something for the person you want to do something for you. I scratch your back, you scratch my back. It’s intuitive, it’s natural, it works. Still, many managers don’t exercise this managerial maxim often enough. According to Maister, invest first in a relationship with your subaltern (or your boss—it works both ways) to get things smoothly done at the office. It doesn’t have to be anything big; showing an interest in him or her as person will do for a start.

Don’t criticize. Criticism, constructive or not, is an attack, says Maister, and the unmitigated natural response to it is a counterattack. As human beings, we can’t help it. As members of a team in an organization, counterattacking won’t do of course. Instead, Maister suggests a stance that starts with: “I’ve got a problem. Will you help me?”

Do be sincere about giving help. Given constructive criticism, to what extent does the recipient absorb it? The answer, states Maister, is:  to the extent that the recipient thinks the criticism giver is sincerely trying to help him (or her). Therefore, to be influential (that is, to be a able to influence an employee or coworker to do what you want) you have to be convincing enough to show that you care about him as a human being.

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