developing people power
Written by Leilani Mitchell
We interact with many people on a daily basis and leave an impression with each one. In business terms these relationships - with suppliers, staff and customers - can have a very real effect on your business and its profitability.
Whatever the nature of our business, one fact is assured - we will always need to deal with other people. Whether these people are our customers, suppliers, colleagues, managers or staff it is important to be able to develop and maintain good relationships.
Poor relationships can lead to a loss of goodwill from supplieers, and loss of business from customers. It can also mean power politics in relation to colleagues, and high stress and absenteeism among staff. With this in mind, a psychological understanding of how people interact, the sort of problems that can develop and how we can address and resolve such tricky relationships can be invaluable in the smooth running of a business, as well as life!
Intellectually knowing the importance of good people skills is all well and good, but changing your own behaviour patterns is, of course, easier said than done. Most people can recognise a good people manager, but even the best managers can make mistakes.
There are enough things to worry about when you run a business - accounts, tax, marketing, packaging, distribution - sometimes people can be overlooked. Recognition for a job well done costs nothing, but is worth a lot to the employee.
On the other end of the scale, when you manage a small team it's easy for the boundaries between "friend" and "employer" to be blerred. How do you maintain professional respect? How can you ensure that you are seen as friendly and flexible, without being seen as a "soft touch"?
During the 1960s and 1970s, a doctor named Eric Berne developed a way of understanding how people interact and the problems that can occur in people's communications. He called this Transactional Analysis (sometimes known as TA).
While originally developed in a psychiatric setting, Berne's models have been found to be relevant in a wide range of other situations. They are now used extensively within business as well as education and psychological arenas.
One important part of Berne's work was the idea of psychological games. Indeed, at the time, the idea of games became so popular that it has now been adopted into our general vocabulary. We now talk of people playing mind games, power games, or talk about political games within organisations.
A psychological game is an unconcious process, involving other people, through which people maintain and reinforce their way of viewing the world.
Within organisations, as with life in general, when people play psychological games problems develop with their interactions and relationships. In many cases, these result simply because peoole are oftenb unaware of how to handle situations differently.
Knowledge and understanding of games can help people to develop and maintain a smooth-running business and positive personal relationships, resulting in a happy, efficient and hopefully prosperous company.
Leilani Mitchell is a qualified Transactional Analyst and trainer and co-founder of The Link Centre.