But why is the “soft stuff” so hard to do?

The cry for better management can be heard from every corner of the corporate arena. So with all this focus on managing people effectively, why are so many companies struggling to pull it off?

First, note that “management” is not a thing. It is the amalgamation of ideas, skills, determination and often bold and decisive actions. When broken down into its parts, the managers task seems to be Sisyphus (in Roman mythology, Sisyphus was a king whose punishment was to be forced to roll a huge boulder up a hill, only to see it roll back down and repeat every time ). eternity).

Here are 5 elements that prevent companies and the individual in them from doing a better job of managing people.

1. Bureaucratic rigidity

Most companies, particularly the largest ones, are rigid by nature. Good people management requires flexibility to deal with the vagaries of human behavior. A corporate culture driven by demands for short-term profit does not encourage or allow flexibility. Risk taking, the kind that tends to inspire innovation and employee engagement, is a key part of the management process; but it is generally not as acceptable in the executive suite.

2. Looking for quick fixes in all the wrong places

“Let’s improve our people management practices!” Too many companies hire well-paid consultants to develop new management models and methodologies when they have no idea how culture drives management decisions. Too often, the people on the front lines who produce the bottom line are ignored.

3. A shortage of fresh prospects

Few organizations have the ability, the will, or the emotional intelligence to go crazy. However, that is what it would take to effectively manage people. Too often, the people who rise to positions of power in most companies have been doing the same ineffective things over and over again. Their blind obsession with the task at hand is what brought them to the top. It is what can lead them to inefficiency. You have to challenge the status quo if you want to embrace and adapt to a new perspective on people management practices. “I have seen the enemy…” is a brutal, powerful and terrifying fact for many in power, but one that must be confronted if one is interested in innovation.

4. Incongruence

“Our people are our most important asset.” First of all, most corporate cultures simply don’t support that statement. Second, viewing people as assets betrays an impersonal “human-is-a-machine” approach to people. Both attitudes reveal low emotional intelligence.

5. We just don’t get it

Perhaps the biggest obstacle to managing people better is that we simply don’t pay attention to or recognize what constitutes the human experience. Management, in addition to being an inexact art, is not only a matter of balance sheets, margins, machines, etc. although paradoxically all these things are created and managed by people.

Management is not something you do once and then sit back and enjoy your work. It is a never-ending story that unfolds with many subplots. It is a way of thinking, a point of view, not only of work or people, but of one’s own worldview. It’s about making unique, often seemingly unconnected associations, connecting interactions that no one else sees. It is continuous curiosity, questioning, searching for something new, different, better, asking uncomfortable questions like “And yes?” Prayed “Why not?” That is the stuff of people management.

So here we are in a changing world of unknowns, unpredictability, surprise events, terrorism and rollercoaster behavioral economics and a business environment that boils down to,

“The rules have changed, the players haven’t noticed!”

Some companies like Southwest Airlines, Apple, Patagonia and Google have managed to learn to manage their people very well. Many smaller, less advertised companies are also doing great work. The ROI on your investments? — Profitable, highly engaged, aligned, and productive people.

I wonder why more companies don’t make the brave decision to do a better job of managing their people.