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By Shelter Chieza

Managing people is a very complex process because people are more complex than machines. This is the reason why I have an appreciation of psychologists, their work and line of business. I believe that psychology should now be slotted into the curricula of any management issue or agenda.

Understanding human behaviour is very important. Most people have spent a lot of money trying to understand human behaviour at work, in relationships, in business meetings, in marriages and so on.

In fact, many fields of human endeavour - such as philosophy, psychology and even theology are focused on finding explanations for the nature of human behaviour.

Behaviourists have pointed out that man is responsible for about 80 percent of his actions. That's why I have since thrown arguments from people that claim they cannot recall a whole night events.

We are all puzzling with trying to find out why some people are so full of themselves, what makes relationships fail or succeed, how much do men and women differ, where do personalities come from, who is a better species to employ - men or women, all those need answers that sometimes managers we can never be able to deduce.

The argument between human resources management experts and financial gurus is on putting human resources in the same category as capital equipment.

Workshop supervisors have been known to say, "give me a pair of hands" with employees crying foul over this reference.

For instance, you may be deliberating on promoting Martha to take up a new role that she may not have much experience in.

It may be beneficial to know ahead of time how she would perform in the new job. Our limited understanding as managers of individual personalities has contributed to the failure of some of our projects.

There are times where we put together a team to manage a new project and it fails. It will not be about the potential of the project, it's mostly about the individuals we place in the team. Know your team's individual strengths and weaknesses beforehand.

I have discovered that human behaviour is absolutely fascinating. The beauty about being a writer is the power to influence thoughts, behaviours and attitudes.

In my presentation on human behaviour, I always quote one of my favourite writers James Allan who wrote "As a man thinketh".

He says: "Man is made/unmade of himself. In the armoury of thought he forges the weapons by which he destroys himself. He also fashions the tools he with which he builds for himself heavenly mansions of joy and strength and peace.

"By the right thoughts and application of thought, man ascends to the divine perfection.

"By the abuse and wrong application of thought he descends below the level of the beast.

"Between these two extremes are all the grades of character and man is their maker and master".

At my workplace, we have a gentleman who was really an antagonist but very talented. He was highly critical of others.

He was generally someone with a condescending and sour personality who wreaked havoc wherever he was.

We decided as management to manage him by giving him important tasks that would keep him so busy that he has no time to disturb others.

This was after we had noticed that there were individuals who were always like shrinking violet whenever they were around him.

So for a while, this worked, he believed that he was indispensable and that no one did the job better than him.

Then we also had Miss Muffet who believed that she must control everyone in the office. She has no care in the world who that person was, she was always bossy and domineering.

She was the type of person that really didn't not mind people talking behind her back because she was busy steeping on people's toes in a bid to get to the top.

She also acted as a boot-licker because she used to bypass her line bosses going direct to senior bosses.

We then decided to give her so many responsibilities, which she has to answer for. That has worked wonders; she is in her zone and believes she is a real leader.

It is also important to manage the human resource that sells your product. If a sales rep leaves the organisation, the cost of lost sales and finding and training a new sales person can be quite heavy.

This is why I do not understand why some companies do not pay attention to high staff turnover.

In some companies, new reps receive extensive initial training and may spend 15 percent of their time each year in additional training.

Training often involves a variety of methods.

It still remains important to motivate that sales rep, the greater the motivation, the greater the effort.

The importance of motivation varies with demographic characteristics. Financial rewards are mostly valued by older, longer-tenured people who have had formal education and those who have large families.

Younger unmarried people tend to value recognition more than the married folks.

Till next week, may God richly bless you!

◆ Shelter Chieza is a Management Consultant. She holds over a decade of Management Experience .She can be contacted at shelter.chieza@gmail.com