Developing a management style to support clients

In government and the corporate world, balancing the needs of the individual against the demands of the operation is a classic Human Resource challenge.

In government, there also needs to be real attention to detail when it comes to service delivery and what is referred to as customer relationship management.That simply means being courteous and professional.

Furthermore, leadership is not a one directional process where someone barks orders and expects results when in reality the effect can be misguided.The more highly trained you are, the worse this style of management can be and the more damage it does.

Taxpayers are asking for a very simple code to be part of government action. Service delivery is not about ticking a box; it is about ensuring we care about our citizens.

Cases in point can be identified in Silicon Valley where aggressive leadership and a male-dominated sector has led to tens of millions of dollars in damages being paid out by companies to former staff members who suffered sexual and other forms of harassment.

Clearly that was an internal problem but you can also identify that these same digital companies have a major crisis when it comes to customer relationships. Uber, Facebook, Twitter and Google are all dealing with customers but are notoriously difficult to contact directly.

And that unfortunately has led to a culture in these companies which has fostered a lack of diversity and in some cases, blatant sexual and other forms of abuse.

Highlighting strengths

Transparent management is part of government in South Africa and should be highlighted as one of our strengths.

But some inside government are determined not to be accountable and the new administration has made it clear that this culture of careless attention to detail will no

longer be acceptable.

One of the tools we use as managers is approaching complex issues with what is called an interactionist model.That is where precise goals and objectives need to be subsumed beneath general overriding concerns and just how to deliver solutions. Sometimes careful plans and schedules have to be reworked quickly to ensure success on a project.

Perhaps it needs to be said that what we really need to have to manage people is a rational approach.

This is compounded when our citizens complain about those who are the face of government and interact mostly with these citizens. Our services are not just about delivering, it's about our attitude WHILE we deliver.

Human responses to conflict inevitably lead to defensive posturing and an “us and them” scenario which means solving the human resource riddle is then almost impossible. Good managers may have a challenging staff member who ticks every legal box but is technically not as effective as they could be. This is where your goal analysis, alternative communication methods, and path to solutions become vital.

Managing ourselves and systems

We must remember that we need to deliver services and at the same time, to do so in a nuanced and professional way. One size does not fit all in our diverse culture.

So as we act we should reflect and include these five ways of managing ourselves and our systems.

The first would be self-management or reflecting on both our manner in dealing with others and our inter-relationships.

The second could be more analytical, where we are managing organisations and that requires data and other skills combined with personal management.

The third is a context-based management where the mind-set is important to take into account.

The fourth would be managing relationships in a collaborative way. Service delivery in government is all about this part of management and we really need to be on the top of our game to deliver in conjunction with others.

The fifth is the most demanding, and that is managing change. Some government departments are actively going through a process of change as we usher in a new administration.

So the next time you are standing in a queue at a government department, take note of the ATTITUDE of those serving the people. If you note there is an attitudinal problem, you should alert senior management to this in the most diplomatic way possible.

Our citizens use their smartphones to pass on information about poor service delivery so it is more and more difficult to hide our poor attitudes from our citizens and our managers.

You don't want to trend on Twitter for the wrong reasons. So think carefully about how you are treating the very people who are paying your salary.