How to Become a People Person: How to Manage People?
Every single day, you meet and interact with a bunch of people with a bunch of different personalities, from the friendly people person to the people pleaser who cannot say “no”. Welp, at first both types of personality could seem to be friendly that it became pretty hard to tell the difference between both. It comes to the extent that it makes you wonder like.. hmm, are they truly friendly as a person or are they just being friendly only to be nice to me? In this article, I’m going to slightly tell you about how to tell the difference between a people person and a people pleaser, and about how to become a people person to help you understand more about the people around you so you can use that sense to upskill your mastery at people management. Hope you’d like it!
1. People Person
According to the Cambridge Dictionary, a people person is “someone who is friendly and enjoys meeting and talking to people”. Their friendliness, is like a magnet for the people around them. They naturally make people comfortable and safe to interact with them. Sometimes people label them as “outgoing”. And we can’t deny that these people persons tend to have an stable social life and they tend to have positive thoughts and be happy in most situations. You can try to tell if someone is a people person by observing and feeling the vibes when interacting with them. If you think they match these criteria, they potentially are a people person:
- They are naturally humble and like to greet people. People persons tend to create positive vibes for the people around them, and one of the ways to do that is by greeting them and being naturally friendly/humble around them!
- They are a good listener and they can remember important points and details about the people around them. They appreciate and value your opinion, so it is really important to them to give you your time and space and remember them for future use.
2. People Pleaser
People pleasers tend to feel like they have to live according to other people’s expectations on them. According to Psychology Today, this type of people often mistaken pleasing everybody’s expectation as simply kindness. They often hesitate saying “no” to people even when they don’t want to or simply don’t have the time to do it when people ask them for help. They often lie to themselves and sacrifice their feelings to the reason of ‘not wanting to be a bad or egotistical person’. This is not a good mindset for their own self and sanity because if they keep on doing this, some people might going to take an advantage out of their ‘kindness’. You can tell a people pleaser by signaling these criteria:
- They always seem to agree to everyone’s opinion because they want to avoid conflicts as much as possible.
- They always feel like they are responsible of other people’s feelings.
- They say “sorry” a lot, and they can’t say “no” to something.
Now you know the difference between a people person and a people pleaser. And by those, you could probably feel that people person would make a better leader in this case. A leader needs to have a set of people management skill because of course, they need to keep and make sure that the team is heading to the right direction.
Then what is people management? People management essentially refers to human resource management. It includes the aspect of the process of motivating, inspiring, and supporting the employees/team members to optimize productivity and professional growth. For example, job-descs like staffing, goal-setting, training, administration, delegation, and policy enforcement need a high people management skill. People management is also a very useful skill to have in the situations like the following:
- Resolving intrapersonal conflicts. Effective people management strategies can help you mediate conflicts between team members in a way that promotes collaboration and respect.
- Managing deadlines. Directing your team members includes assigning tasks and establishing achievable goals. Effective people management strategies could help you in evaluating your team’s resources and set a realistic deadlines that encourage progress.
- Building company/team culture. Your leadership position allows you to positively influence your working environment. By that, your team member would also be motivated to give feedbacks on their perspective of the team, so that you could turn those feedbacks into some actionable changes to help the development of the team.
The examples of realistic people management skills such as empowering team members, active listening, conflict resolution, flexibility, patience, clear communication, trust, and organization. Now we know the essence of people management. But how could we train ourselves to have that skill? You can do that by following these tips below:
a. Maintain good communication
Working in a team, it’s like we’re stuck in a loop of ongoing projects, goals, and deadlines, so it’s very important for you to communicate well with the rest of the team and inform them about what’s going on within the team, what are you currently doing, etc. It’s also essential that you encourage feedback and that your team members feel like they can approach you with any issues they want to address, so making yourself accessible to everyone in the team is critical.
b. Build positive working relationships
It’s reeallly important to get to know the other members in the team individually, not only on a professional level, but in a more personal level as well. When you put an effort to do get to know how your team is doing and what their interested in, it would build a better understanding and would lead into positivity within the team.
c. Acknowledge good work
Don’t be one of those people who only gives feedback when they got something to criticize! By providing your colleagues with positive feedbacks and acknowledgement when someone has done something excellent, it will help them build motivations and confidence and encourage them to get more involved in the future.
d. Be realistic
No one should expect anyone in the team to be a superhuman. So, if anyone is feeling the pressure and need a help, don’t be afraid to approach them and ask for critics. Maybe their assigned workload is too much for their power. By that it could allow your team to feel more relaxed in working and deliver the product with a guaranteed better quality.
e. Set a good example
As a leader, your colleagues would be looking at you for some guidance and inspiration. That makes it very important to set a good example to gain some respect from them. If you expect them to be professional and set a high commitment for their work, it’s essential then for you to do the same.
Well, that’s just few of a bunch of ways on how to train yourself to gain that people management skill. Hope you like the article and hope it gave you a little insights into people management. Thanks for reading and have an excellent day!
References
People Person vs People Pleaser: 6 Perbedaan dan Lebih Baik Siapa? (glints.com)
Guide To People Management: Definition, Tips and Skills | Indeed.com
8 Tips for Managing Your Team Effectively (theundercoverrecruiter.com)
The Alternative People Management Skills Every Manager Needs — Findmyshift
