Intrigued?

Suspicious?

Don't worry, I'm not about to suggest any mind control techniques!

In fact, I'm going to suggest something quite the opposite. But first, let me explain why this article is about "getting people to give you what you want."

Well, the truth is, no matter what you do for a living - whether you're self-employed, run a business, manage people or work for someone else -- you need OTHER PEOPLE'S HELP to get ahead.

Stress.

If you are new to management you probably haven't felt quite the same kind of stress that you do now!

Now you are responsible for and to a team of people. You must define goals for your team, organize their work, make sure they do it well, deal with conflicts between people, cope with change, handle crises... Oh, and still get home in time to be there for your family and all their concerns!

It's natural to feel pressure or stress.

Do you have an unreasonable boss? An unreasonable client? (An unreasonable spouse :) )

Someone who makes unreasonable demands of you - like expecting you to produce "impossible" results in unrealistic timeframes... without the people, time, budget or other essential resources to produce those results?

If you do, here's an approach for responding when they make unreasonable demands of you.

As an outstanding manager, you won't just "manage" people; you'll also assist the members of your team develop to their true potential.

This means helping team members utilize their talents, develop new skills and knowledge, overcome fresh challenges, become more and more productive, become happier, and in all respects grow as employees and people.

Recruiting the right person for the right role is all about finding the best possible match between an individual and the job.

Let me use an example to explain how I recommend you recruit someone, starting with preparing the job description.

Let's say you need to hire a salesperson. What do you do now?

You could write out a job description based on what you think the salesperson should do.

If you manage people for any length of time, it's likely that, at some stage, you'll need to let one or more people go.

It might be because they aren't performing to your expectations; because you no longer need their role performed; or because they've breached the law or a company policy.

Whatever the circumstances, firing or retrenching someone is a confronting and often stressful task.

As a manager, you're expected to decide what needs to be done, gather the resources to do it, and then decide who does what.

Okay, managing is a little more than that, but it certainly does include setting goals, gathering resources, and delegating tasks.

Now, if you're like many managers, there sometimes isn't any clear line between the work you think you should do, and the work you think your staff should do.

Let me begin by stating that the best way to handle a crisis, is to prevent one.

So when it comes to things like network and computer failures, it behooves you to: use reliable computer systems; employ the best possible technical staff to keep your network trouble-free and respond to problems; make back-ups of your data and software (at least daily); and adopt industry best practices, such as security practices.

You'd think we'd know by now - just because someone is fantastic at doing something... doesn't mean they're equally as good at managing others to do that same thing.

After all, the skill set required to practice a specific profession - whether it's plumbing,
hairdressing, engineering, selling, teaching, accounting or whatever - is entirely different
from the skill set required to manage people.

Performance appraisal.

Or, if you prefer, performance review.

Whichever term you use, mention it to a dozen of your friends -- whether they typically give or receive performance appraisals -- and notice the responses you get.

A grimace?

A roll of the eyes?

Tension?

A satisfied smile?

Let's face it, mentioning "performance appraisal" gets such mixed responses because people have such mixed experiences.