Getting smart with your staff

So says David Chapman, chief executive of New Zealand Institute of Management (NZIM) national office.

“When good, skilled people are so hard to get, you have to learn to treat them right.”

For Chapman, it’s about developing managers who have strong soft skills: empathy, listening, being emotionally aware and looking after staff as people, not just as employees.

“Our traditional management style in this country has been very geared towards promoting people with business and accounting backgrounds,” says Chapman.

“What we need now are managers who can be more creative and who have good people skills.

“Unless we can motivate staff, and make them feel good about what they do at work, they won’t stay, and they won’t give of their best.”

Chapman says managing staff is a particular challenge in New Zealand.

Our companies tend to be small, family-owned and domestic-focused, making it hard for managers to get the breadth of experience they need, he says.

New Zealand Business Excellence Foundation research has shown that Kiwi companies tend to peak then flatten out because of lack of management capability.

In 2007, the NZIM teamed up with the Employers and Manufacturers Association and Government to form Management Focus.

The initiative aims to encourage and help businesses to up-skill.

“The biggest leap forward will be made when management is confident enough to loosen the reins, build greater trust and recruit more broadly,” says Chapman.

Terry Shubkin, account and service delivery manager for Unisys, says New Zealand businesses need to develop a more mature management style.

“Too often we say, ‘you’re a really good sales person so, congratulations, you’re now the sales manager’.

“It’s not an automatic progression and there are different skill sets.

“We need more investment in teaching leadership skills.”

Yet, more qualifications alone will not resolve the issue.

Soft skills are harder to teach and usually not learned in a classroom.

Opus chief executive Kevin Thompson says communication lies at the heart of good management.

“I try to make the company as small as possible and bring humanity to the role.

“I know from staff that it’s less about what I say, than that I’m interacting directly.”