People Management
What is People Management?
"People management is the process of training, motivating and directing employees to optimize workplace productivity and promote professional growth."
(Indeed Editorial Team, 2019)
I believe that People Management goes beyond managing a team. People Management looks deeper into recognizing each individual’s strengths and assigning them roles and responsibilities that complements these strengths so as to enhance work productivity.
What are some People Management tools?
Project Team Structure
Shows the overview of people involved in the project and how they are connected to each other as well as the relationship they have between each other.
Applying the Project Team Structure
For the “Let’s Kawan!” project, our Project Team Structure includes the Steering Committee, Project Team Manager and Project Team Members. The Steering Committee refers to our partner organisation, the Movement for the Intellectually Disabled of Singapore (MINDS). They overlook the entire project and make most of the important decisions regarding the project as they have higher authority. They will refer to the Project Team Manager, Natasha, for any updates or queries. The Project Team Manager will be responsible for conveying information from the Steering Committee to the Project Team Members.
Key Values:
It helps us to organise our team and each members’ roles. We get to visually see who is involved in the project and who we should report to.
Challenge:
It might not be sufficient to decide the roles and responsibilities of each team member. Thus we have used the MBTI tool to aid us.
MBTI
Myers Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) is a tool that helps an individual identify and understand their personality type which includes how they interact with others and their preferences.
Applying MBTI
MBTI was used to decide the roles and responsibilities of each member in our team (as seen in the photo on the right). We identified each of our strengths and tapped on them by giving roles and responsibilities that best fit our various strengths.
Our MBTI
Natasha is a INTJ. With her high self-confidence and her ability to express her ideas well, she would do a great job at liaising with MINDS. Being a perfectionist and someone who is reliable, the group feel comfortable putting our trust in her. We trust that she would detect any mistakes well and be able to convey the right information to the group and be a good representative of our group.
As for myself, I am a ISFJ. Being someone who is observant and having good analytical skills, I am able to notice the little details. So little details such as missing logistics or logistics that is being misplaced, I am able to take note of. Additionally, I am reliable and I often ensure high quality work, thus the group are able to put their trust on me in doing my part.
For Firdhaus, he is an easygoing individual and he is sensitive to others. So when he conducts the briefings, he is able to create a comfortable environment for open discussion. He is also spontaneous and has good adaptability skills. With these qualities, he is able to react well if things go out of hand during the programme.
Lastly, Nadine is a ESFP. so she has excellent people skills spontaneous and is easy to communicate with. With these qualities she would be able to guide the volunteers well. She is also down to earth so she would be able to point out any areas of improvements to the volunteers well.
Key Values:
The MBTI helped us understand each other and our work ethics better which allowed us to work well as a team. By assigning each other in areas we are good at, we were able to take on our roles and responsibilities well.
Challenge:
The MBTI may not always be accurate as it may depend on the situation. For instance, despite having qualities such as having the ability to ensure high-quality work, I struggled to do so during the first session of the programme as I felt too anxious and this affected work quality.
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