This article will help you to:

(1) nurture your personnel over the short and long term,

(2) mature them to their highest potential, both as team members and as individuals, and

(3) increase the meaningfulness, value, and productivity of every job function in your organization.

SUMMARY

If you are in business, your success invariably depends upon the actions of other people. While the business owner’s pipe dream is to have everyone’s heart and mind “100% on board” with the company’s vision, the stark reality is that apathy is among the most common - and severe - challenges business owners face.

“The way you do one thing is the way you do everything”

As we consider the lives of our team members, we must understand the idea of integration. While many people assert, “I want a great professional life and a great personal life,” the reality is that our lives are best viewed as an integrated whole, where everything is connected; it’s one life!

Anything that affects the individual affects the employee; this may be self evident . . . but it is the same person! So, logically, the better the individual, the better the employee. This is a pattern we must develop in order to have healthy people systems in our business. Therefore, we must take an active (but not obsessive) interest in the lives of the people who are being commissioned to help us succeed.

If you are ultimately responsible for making the vision of your organization a reality, you must not only make sure that your people are aware of how their daily contributions “make it all come together,” (see Systemizing Job Function) you must also be sure that they are in the best possible alignment with their personal calling and their strengths. This involves a strategic approach to management which involves a delicate balance of nurture, motivation, and performance evaluation.

How to Manage Your People in an Integrated Way

1. Develop a consistent schedule of one-on-one meetings with your people. Keep these meetings under 30 minutes.
2. In conjunction with checking your employees on their 30-60-90 day goals, develop a simple template of questions to review both their performance and their person. Here are some suggestions:

2. 1. How are you doing on your goals?
   2. Are your goals incorporated into real time (your calendar)?
   3. What can I do to help you to achieve this goal?
   4. If you could change one thing about your working-life over the next 6 months, what would that be?
   5. Before our next meeting, what one small thing can you do to start chipping away at this? How can I help you get there?
   6. How is your family?
   7. What does your spouse think about your progress in this job position?
   8. Are you “living the dream” today?

   Document their answers - no matter how benign or absurd they may seem. Your goal as a manager isn’t to puppeteer them, but to be able to truly “see” them where they are, both in progress and in general wellness as evaluated by the questions you ask.

Utilize your documentation in conjunction with your annual (or bi-annual) performance evaluations.

The by-product of good, consistent personnel management be the maturity of your team. Once you begin to utilize your power to enable your people, you’ll be taking giant leaps toward the freedom you were designed for!

Jeff Timpanaro is the president of Oberata Consulting, a 2008 Certified Total Integration firm, based in Kingwood, TX. Oberata is a consulting firm founded on the principles of strategy, process, and transformation, and utilizes the Total Integration^TM system of business consulting. This system has helped business owners and professionals in the Fortune 100 with definitive, measurable operating strategies that produce unprecedented growth and profitability. For more information about Oberata Consulting call 281.570.4676.