The Humans in the System

Computers are easy. People are hard.

Because tech is built on binary code, it presents a pretty simple series of problems: on/off, yes/no, 0/1.

People…are not binary. People are vast soups of insecurity, irritation, pride, integrity, curiosity, resilience, and terror. And they bring all of that to the desk with them.

If you’re managing groups of people, you cannot treat them as interchangeable widgets. In the aggregate, they may appear as a cohesive group, but they are individuals – each as different as a grain of sand.

The bulk of management work is not planning strategy, or roadmaps, or budgets, or anything else. The bulk of management work is handling your people. And if that isn’t done well, the rest is not happening.

What does that mean, practically speaking? Because it’s one thing to acknowledge the complexity of human nature in the workplace, and quite another to harness it and make it work for the organization.

Over the course of my career, I’ve managed teams as small as two and as large as 50. And I’ve come away from that experience with some immutable principles:

• Treat your people like the experts they are. You hired (or inherited) them for a reason. They know what they’re doing, probably better than you do. And that’s okay! They’re there to do the work; you’re there to provide support and direction.
  • Listen to them. When they tell you something’s not possible, don’t assume it’s because they’ve tried nothing and are all out of ideas. Sit with them, ask them what solutions they’ve attempted, dig into the system they’re working with and find its limitations.
  • Trust them. Most people want to do well. Most people want their projects to succeed. Work has meaning for people. They get a lot of satisfaction out of doing a good job! Yes, there are exceptions, but don’t let those exceptions become the rule.
• If an employee is problematic, drill down on exactly how. Are they derailing meetings and talking over people? Are they quiet and barely contributing? Are they obstinate and blocking things? There are reasons for all of these – and as a manager, you have to be somewhat of a therapist. Find out WHY they’re acting this way. Once you understand the why, you can generally work with them to reduce the problematic behavior. Some common reasons:
  • Insecurity. People overcompensate and become loud. Provide reassurance that they are valued and trusted. This reassurance calms the over-talkers and boosts the quiet ones.
  • Resentment. They’ve been doing this work for a long time and perhaps they’ve been passed over for a promotion; perhaps the company is taking a direction they don’t agree with; perhaps it has nothing to do with anything at work and they’ve got other stuff going on. Again, emphasizing that you respect them and trust their viewpoint, even if you yourself can’t act on it, goes a long way towards bringing a recalcitrant employee onto your side. Give them the opportunity to say “I told you so!” – for some people, that brings satisfaction like nothing else.
• When all else fails, be compassionate. Sometimes you will not be able to win an employee over. Sometimes an employee will self-destruct. No matter what, start documenting specific instances and situations, and your responses to each. You’re going to have to explain this to someone – a VP, or HR. If you’ve led your team with trust and respect, the fact that someone is falling apart on your watch will be looked at as the anomaly it is.
  • While much of management is therapy-like, you are not, in fact, your employees’ therapist. That is not your role. A lot of companies have Emergency Assistance Programs that connect people with therapists, and part of your job as a manager is working with HR to implement this connection.
  • Again, we’re talking about humans. Humans are unpredictable, mysterious, and sometimes unstable. If you’ve done all you can – and documented it – that’s all you can do. HR will take it from there.

If this sounds like a lot – it is! There’s a reason some people prefer to be individual contributors and not managers. It’s not intuitive work, especially in tech environments (which most environments are, these days). Juggling individual personalities, quirks, preferences, and senses of humor – it’s messy, disorganized, and nerve-wracking sometimes. But it boils down to just treating people like people. You’re a person. You can do this.