Psychology of people management: how to manage a person and yourself

How to manipulate people with words? It's simple! You just need to understand the theory.

Communication between people is an integral part of our lives. When you encounter people, you are somehow manipulated. Moreover, you yourself use these techniques in relation to others. Most people mistakenly think that manipulation is always negative. However, methods of manipulation are often used to achieve a positive effect in work, relationships, and communication with people. In today’s article we will take a closer look at the following issues of manipulative communication:

Manipulation - the psychology of communicating with people
What types of people are most susceptible to manipulation?
Psychological portrait of a manipulator
Types of manipulators in psychology
Types of manipulations in psychology
Is it always bad to be a manipulator?
How to learn to manipulate people

We figure out how to properly manipulate people with words

Goals

Often, to achieve a goal, you need the help of other people, but it is not always possible to ask for it directly.
Practical psychologists became interested in the impact on the psyche of another individual. They managed to create techniques that, when applied, any individual will be able to control his interlocutor, a group of people, and even an entire country. Manipulation skills are necessary in all areas of life. They help parents unobtrusively educate and instill in their children norms of behavior. Businessmen need to establish business contacts with partners. A leader who skillfully manages his subordinates reduces the level of conflict in the team and creates a favorable environment. The seller, knowing the peculiarities of the buyer’s psyche, quietly pushes them to buy.

People manipulate each other all the time. But many do this unconsciously, which is why achieving results takes years. If an individual has management skills and uses them wisely, he will manage to manage his life. Such people quickly move up the career ladder and achieve personal goals.

Image creation

When forming the personality of a leader, many aspects need to be taken into account. One of them is the image of a business person. Its main components include:

Health, the preservation of which many businessmen forget, but a sick person evokes only compassion or pity from those around him.
Appearance, as well as the ability to select high-quality and stylish clothes.
When considering what every leader should be like, one cannot fail to mention good manners. Neither teamwork nor negotiations can be done without them.
Ability to present information clearly and professionally.
The internal world also influences the effectiveness of management decisions. To achieve success, clear civic and moral positions are important, as well as the right attitude towards one’s place in the world.

Image is a combination of appearance, actions and manners. By emphasizing a respectful, correct attitude towards your interlocutor, you form a stable positive attitude towards yourself.

The personality of a leader is expressed in the ability to treat subordinates, neighbors, or even saleswomen as if they were his best business partners. At the same time, it is very important to permanently remove slang words and common expressions from your speech. If accidentally thrown out during a business conversation, such phrases can seriously damage a manager’s reputation and devalue other personal qualities.

Classification

There are many methods of influencing the psyche. They differ in complexity and duration of influence. The only quality that unites all methods is secrecy: a person should not understand that he is being manipulated. Methods of influence:

Suggestion. The manipulator “puts” the necessary thoughts into a person’s head, leading him to certain conclusions. Suggestion occurs through communication, “random” throwing of facts, unobtrusive discussion of a problematic topic.
Manipulation. A complex process of influence that requires a combination of several methods of influence. The leader becomes for his subordinates what they want him to be. It combines emotional pressure, offering benefits, and plays on the fear of missed opportunities. The choice of manipulation technique is individual. Influence affects both the crowd and the individual.
NLP. This technique allows you to program the object of influence. It is the most difficult, requiring deep knowledge of psychology. Manipulation techniques using NLP cannot be overcome. They are similar to hypnosis: the individual is not aware of the control of an outsider, he believes that he himself made the decision.

All methods are effective, but the degree of influence also depends on the abilities of the manipulator, the psyche of the person they are trying to control.

Take care of employee comfort

Work environment: Freepick
Automation helps teams do their jobs more efficiently. Think about what office equipment and specialized software you need, listen to the opinions of your employees and purchase everything you need.

In addition, it is important:

compliance with the rules of sanitation and hygiene;
availability of an equipped workplace for each employee;
a clearly defined schedule, with breaks and working hours.

Remember that the quality of work is affected by lighting, air temperature, and the absence of distracting noise.

Features of subordination

To understand how and what control methods to choose, you need to know the peculiarities of how the psyche works. The manipulator must:

Radiate positive energy. A friendly person causes a response - those around him are unconsciously drawn to him. The opinion of a positive person is perceived favorably, even if he expresses controversial things.
Don't show excitement. Even in a situation of heated dispute, one must remain calm. This will confuse the opponent and show the manipulator as a strong person. If a dispute has witnesses, they will remember who was in a more advantageous position.
Manage your time, be able to plan things. You cannot learn to influence other people if you cannot manage your own priorities. You need to get rid of meaningless activities.
Always make eye contact. When an individual hides his eyes, he is treated with suspicion. A leader always looks in the face and does not look away. If you feel uncomfortable looking into your eyes, you can look at the point between your eyebrows.
Don't be afraid to enter into conflict. Fear of conflict is a serious obstacle to learning management techniques. Conflict is a clash of interests. You need to learn to defend your opinion. Of course, this will displease your opponents, but you cannot adapt to them, otherwise you will not be able to influence the situation.
Develop strengths. You need to use and develop your advantages. If an individual tries to develop weaknesses, he wastes time on this that he could spend on strengthening strong skills. You need to upgrade the skills you already have - this will allow you to quickly increase your level of efficiency.
Make a positive first impression. Correcting a bad first impression is difficult and it is better to avoid it. In order for the object of manipulation to form positive associations, you need to prepare for the first meeting. Find out what he likes, choose a cafe with a suitable atmosphere. Give a small gift. It does not oblige you to anything, but will be a good sign of attention.

When confident behavior becomes habitual, you can move on to honing manipulation techniques.

Criticize correctly

Rules for leading a team: Freepick
Business coach Andrey Mozhzhanov reminds us of the importance for a manager of correct feedback and the ability to criticize constructively:

Speak from the “I-position”. Not “You are bad”, but “I don’t like the result of your work.”
Apply the “sandwich principle”: wrap what you want to change in two portions of what worked well: “The report was completed on time, but there was not enough data from the accounting department. It would be great if you added them today.”
Use the “hot stove principle”, that is, give the reaction immediately and in full - do not delay it or give it out in pieces. At the same time, talk only about a specific situation. There should be no exceptions for employees.

Quality feedback is meant to enrich, not degrade or destroy. A leader must provide valuable reflection to the other person so that he can change and become a better person.

Methods and methods of influence depending on the abilities of the manipulator

The choice of the appropriate method of influence depends on the goal, the character traits of the people who are to be convinced, and the moral values of the manipulator. You can influence through physiological needs and emotions.

Visual influencers

A leader must take care of his appearance. People study and evaluate each other based on their appearance, since the main channel for receiving information is vision. A respectable appearance inspires respect and emphasizes high social status. For men the following are required:

Acoustic influences

Impact using speech features also gives good results. You need to watch your voice: speak measuredly. It should sound friendly, but not ingratiating. You can’t speak too quickly - it’s annoying and takes away interest in the words.

Popular speech techniques of influence:

repeating the last phrase after the interlocutor;
offering two options to choose from, both of which are beneficial to the manipulator;
leading questions that encourage you to express your true desires.

To get a positive response from a skeptical interlocutor, you need to create or wait for the right situation. A noisy place with a large crowd of people is suitable for conversation. In such a situation, the object of manipulation will want to end the conversation as quickly as possible and will quickly agree to the proposed conditions.

Business qualities

When studying how to properly manage a team, special attention should be paid to the business characteristics of a person’s character. Some of them are able to compensate for even rather modest work experience or lack of specialized education. Important personal qualities of a leader, first of all, are the ability to organize the work of subordinates and quickly solve emerging difficulties.

At the same time, the effectiveness of management decisions depends on a systematic approach to work. Every successful leader must perceive the organization as a collection of interconnected elements. Each component (people, technology, tasks, organizational structure) is aimed at achieving different goals. Therefore, the key skills of a manager include the ability to organize work in such a way that all elements work harmoniously.

In addition, you need to remember the need to develop the following qualities:

the desire to maintain a leadership position in all situations;
ambition and ability to defend one’s opinion;
Also, the effectiveness of management decisions largely depends on the ability to win over and convince interlocutors;
enterprise;
flexibility in solving work problems;
strict self-control and restraint;
the personality of the manager requires the ability to correctly distribute work processes between subordinates;
lack of fear of innovation.

How are self-control and influence on others related?

Manipulation requires strong willpower and the ability to control your emotions. When directing another person, a leader must be in control of the situation. Otherwise, the object will seize the initiative and you will not be able to influence it.

When self-control has been mastered at a sufficient level, you need to start working on your reputation. It is important to evoke the right impression, trust, and establish an emotional connection.

At first, you need to take the position of an observer: learn to evaluate people from afar, try to guess what they are thinking about. In dialogue, take the position of an active listener: do not impose an opinion, agree with the interlocutor. And only when it opens can you move on to suggestion.

An experienced manipulator can assess at first glance how he should behave with an object. It will take years of continuous training to develop this level of skill. To understand how to manage yourself and people, build relationships, influence the situation from the outside and from the inside, you need to study at least the basics of human psychology.

What types of people are most susceptible to manipulation?

It is quite difficult to create a single portrait of a person being manipulated. Each of us has vulnerable personality traits that a potential manipulator can put pressure on.

In the science of psychology, there are certain types of people who can become potential victims of manipulation:

The first type is people for whom their needs are a factor in their safe and comfortable state. At this level, manipulations are carried out. In this case, manipulation can take the form of providing and not providing the needs necessary for a person to achieve the goals of manipulation.
The second type is neurotic people who spend most of their lives in a stressful state. This type of people is characterized by melancholicity, vulnerability, and the predominance of the emotional part over the rational. Manipulation of such people occurs at the level of their emotions and feelings. Such people are characterized by methods of manipulating feelings (shame, love, affection), gaslighting, and instilling feelings of guilt.
The third type combines rational people with developed logical thinking. Manipulation at the level of feelings is useless for such people. They are built on the basis of pressure on their self-esteem, conscience, self-esteem.
The fourth type are people with various psychological disorders who cannot be aware of what is happening around them.

By determining what type of personality you are, you can predict manipulation.

Learning to see how to correctly manipulate people with words

Why do influence methods fail to produce results?

Even experienced psychologists are not always able to choose a method of influencing a person. The reason for this may be:

Depleted personal resource. If the manipulator is tired, irritated, and cannot concentrate, he will not be able to maintain a leadership position. In such a situation, he himself may become an object of influence. It is better to reschedule the conversation, otherwise it may lead to irreparable results.
Psycho-emotional instability. If the target has mental illness, manipulation may backfire. Instead of calming down, a mentally unstable person will experience an attack of aggression. This must be taken into account when choosing a management technique. It is important to remember that a sociopath cannot be controlled because he himself has an innate ability to manipulate.
Lack of self-confidence. When a leader does not believe in himself, the target feels it too. Then the desire to subjugate will lead to the manipulator becoming more disappointed in his abilities.
Incorrectly selected method of influence. If the technique does not work, the exposure must be stopped.
The target is not defined. When a manager does not see the result and uses influence techniques just like that, they will be ineffective.

The main thing a manipulator should strive for is not to allow the objects of influence to understand what is happening. If a person notices that he is being used, the consequences can be dire.

Fear as the basis for managing people or how to subjugate your subordinates

Imagine the situation: a manager scolds a subordinate, and he stands there, openly bored. That is, he does not perceive the boss as an authority, he is not afraid of him. At the same time, it becomes downright pathetic to look at the boss.

He shouts, tries to put pressure on his subordinate, but the effect is exactly the opposite. At the same time, other subordinates laugh at this situation. Is this a familiar picture? Do you want to be such a boss?

The reasons why subordinates do not perceive the leader as a boss are described in detail here >>>

The reason for this state of affairs is that the manager does not understand the basic principles of people management and does not invest time and money in his development. And most likely, he himself is also unconsciously afraid of his subordinates, and perhaps of people in general.

How to subjugate your subordinates? What principles of management exist so that a subordinate does not even have the thought of disobeying the leader?

Correct answer: you need to influence your instincts.

Which instinct is the strongest?

That's right, the instinct of self-preservation, that is, fear . This is the basis of managing people in our country.

How these very instincts can play a cruel joke on the leader himself, read here >>>

It must be said that Russia has always been famous for its low work culture, low motivation, and low consciousness. This is especially true among the lower strata of the population. And any breakthroughs in development were always accompanied by an authoritarian management style. That is, a strong personality and universal fear.

Remember the reforms of Peter the Great, or Stalin’s first five-year plans, when the country from ruins in just a few years turned into a world industrial power. Accordingly, remember what happened under Gorbachev, or under the alcoholic Yeltsin. These are examples of a democratic, or as it is also called, permissive management style .

Provided by SendPulse

Useful literature

You can learn to manipulate people on your own by reading special books. For beginners, it is better to choose authors who clearly explain control techniques without delving into complex terminology:

Z. Freud “Analysis of the human self and mass psychology.” The father of psychoanalytic theory examines in detail the features of relationships between relatives, friends, and colleagues. The author also gives characteristics of the leader, describing his outstanding qualities.
S. Kholnov and V. Shlakhter “The Art of Dominance.” A set of ready-made techniques that can be used in work and personal life.
V. Sheinov “The Art of Managing People.” The author uses examples from life to examine hidden techniques of manipulation and protection against them. Provides ready-made methods for conducting negotiations and ways out of conflict situations.
R. Cialdini “Psychology of Persuasion.” In the book, the author collected 50 persuasion techniques based on the results of psychological research.
H. Fexeus “How to read and control other people’s thoughts.” This book will help you learn to predict the behavior and desires of others and, based on this, build your behavior.
R. Levin “Mechanisms of manipulation.” This book contains tips that are suitable for people whose lives are connected with advertising and business: negotiating, signing an agreement, increasing sales.

Learning how to manage people will take time, but with constant practice, selecting the appropriate influence technique will be easy.

Psychological stability and thinking

One of the key characteristics of good managers is psychological stability and positive thinking. How to learn to manage people is understood by the person who is not embarrassed by doubts or fears and is not burdened by negative emotions. He is confident in himself, as well as in the goods or services that he needs to sell. The ability to control emotions and a positive mood will help such a manager very quickly convince clients and gain their trust.

An equally important aspect for the effectiveness of management decisions is customer focus and the use of the right strategies when working with them. After all, the number of beneficial agreements for the company directly depends on the number of satisfied customers. A good leader is very attentive to people, knows how to listen to them, and also has a subtle instinct.

In addition, it is important that a leader be able to show patience and persistence towards subordinates, partners or clients. However, he must be extremely careful so that his actions do not look too intrusive.

The effectiveness of management decisions also cannot be achieved without the ability to persuade. A good specialist needs to constantly develop this practice, supplementing it with new tools. Understanding the psychological characteristics of a person is of great importance in the implementation of persuasion skills.

Learn to say no

A leader must not only motivate and inspire, but also be able to refuse. This is important when dealing with manipulators who may be found among employees and partners.

Learn to say the word “no”. A categorical refusal that you are sure of should never be accompanied by explanations or, especially, justifications. Don't feel guilty about it. People feel the inner mood, and if you hesitate, you may be forced to comment and even persuaded.

Be strict but fair

A serious leader can joke appropriately and remain friendly. A sense of humor makes him approachable and allows his subordinates to see him not only as a boss, but as a person.

Allow yourself to rest and relax, read motivational books and watch funny shows to keep conversations going beyond business and find ways to defuse the situation.

Organize a monthly informal team dinner to maintain friendly relations with employees and energize them to complete assigned tasks. Publicly praise those who deserve it.

Every manager has a personal list of team management secrets. This is determined by who exactly you work with, what experience and tasks you have. Use the proposed principles and build your team management style on their basis.

Original article: https://www.nur.kz/family/self-realization/1717347-kak-upravlat-ludmi-na-rabote/

MANAGEMENT MISTAKES OF MANAGERS

What makes the company successful?

The basis for the successful functioning of the company is the smooth, efficient work of its personnel. The ability to establish communication processes, set clear goals and conduct timely control will help any manager increase the company’s profit several times without attracting new investments and partners, without creating a new product line or additional recruitment.

How to unite the management team?

First of all, the work of the management team itself needs to be put on track. Check whether your managers know their functionality and area of responsibility, whether their departments are staffed, and what their turnover rate is.

An important indicator is the interaction of departments . Managers must constantly share experiences, maintain communication and interact between departments.

I will give an example of improper work of the management team. The marketing department launched a promotion, which the sales department learned about when applications began to arrive.

The first hour of processing applications was lost because the sales department was not notified of the launch of the promotion (the fact that applications had arrived was noticed by the head of another department). The second hour was spent drawing up an algorithm for processing these requests for the sales department and informing managers about the conditions of the promotion.

The third hour was spent testing the processing hypothesis and identifying errors in the application collection field (the marketing department forgot to indicate the telephone collection field; some clients could not be contacted promptly).

As a result, instead of resolving current issues and working with transactions, the entire sales department was immersed in an urgent promotion.

What problems could department heads solve if they collaborated with each other?

In case of interaction, department heads could agree on the text of the mailing and notify managers about it in advance, check the testing of the collection of applications and all the necessary fields, and draw up a detailed algorithm for processing applications.

Then at 9:00 the sales department would be ready for applications and incoming calls for a promotional product and could start sales from 9:00, not from 12:00, draining a sufficient number of leads.

To unite the management team, arrange joint planning meetings and set tasks so that department heads understand that not only their financial and status position, but also the salary of department employees depends on their joint work.

What should a manager know about his subordinates?

In order to unite and coordinate the work of a team within a department, it must be managed by a competent leader who will never offend his employees and will know everything about them. Yes, that's all! Not only professional competencies with past jobs, but also what motivates the employee, where and in what conditions he lives, what his family is like, what the names of his children are. For animal lovers, knowing the name of your pet is a must!

What prevents you from gradually studying an employee during communication?

We are all human, which means we need communication and support. You can only be confident in the person you know everything about. Knowing his interests and motivation, it is easier for the manager to set tasks and achieve the fulfillment of planned indicators.

Why is team spirit needed?

In building team spirit, we need to take the initiative and show employees that at work we do more than just work. Work takes up a lot of time in anyone's life, and it shouldn't be a burden.

Team spirit allows people to love their work. Gather your colleagues for round tables, come up with team tasks with interesting prizes for their successful completion. The gaming atmosphere will quickly unite the team, and you won’t have to think about how to get your employees to communicate and solve problems on their own.

For effective personnel management, use transparent motivation system. Each employee must understand the area of responsibility of the other employee and his motivation. This is necessary for his further career growth as an employee and understanding the principles of work of a particular specialist.

If you are an adherent of a closed motivation system, make it clear and simple for the employee to whom it is directed, and advertise general prizes and bonuses.

COMBATING EMPLOYEE TURNOVER IN THE WAREHOUSE

How do you combat staff turnover in your warehouse?

Warehouse personnel turnover is one of the pressing problems of the logistics business. The turnover rate is especially high when there are several warehouse complexes owned by different companies in the same area. In this case, people try to find a place where the salary is higher, and often run in circles.

To combat turnover, you need to maintain comfortable working conditions . Now we are talking not just about the Labor Code, but about truly comfortable working conditions.

We work with class A warehouses and warehouses certified according to LEED (Noginsk) and BREEAM (Domodedovo) standards. These are environmental building standards indicating a high level of energy and environmental efficiency of buildings.

Our company provides employees with additional conditions: delivery to work and back to the metro or railway station, since warehouses are located outside of Moscow, in the Moscow region. Employees receive financial assistance for the birth of children, New Year gifts, food subsidies, and insurance.

An important point for effective management is the adaptation of newcomers and mentoring . The company has a whole mentoring program. Each new employee is assigned a mentor who will support him throughout the probationary period. This allows the newcomer to smoothly integrate into the team. A new employee knows who to contact with any question.

How to improve work comfort?

The lean manufacturing tools used in our company also improve work comfort. For example, arranging a workplace in accordance with 5S rules.

5S is a system for organizing and rationalizing the workplace (workspace), one of the tools of lean manufacturing. Developed in post-war Japan. There are five steps:

sorting (necessary-unnecessary) - a clear division of things into necessary and unnecessary and getting rid of the latter;
maintaining order (neatness) - orderly and precise arrangement and storage of necessary things, which allows you to quickly find them and use them;
keeping clean (cleaning) - keeping the workplace clean and tidy;
standardization (establishment of norms and rules) is a necessary condition for fulfilling the first three rules;
improvement (literal translation - education) - nurturing the habit of accurately following established rules, procedures and technological operations.

The goals of 5S are to reduce the number of accidents, improve product quality and reduce the number of defects, create a comfortable psychological climate and stimulate the desire to work, increase labor productivity by reducing time for searching for objects within the workspace.

If the workplace is orderly and standardized, it is easier for a newcomer to understand the processes.

What to watch out for when manipulating

How to overcome fear and phobias yourself - ways to fight

The most important condition for manipulation is secrecy. As soon as the manipulated person realizes that he has come under someone else's influence, the influence stops. In addition, the disclosure of secret control most often leads to a deterioration in relations. So the main caution is to hide the manipulation.

Revealing the manipulation leads to a quarrel

What is also important to consider: in addition to the process of manipulating people itself, there is the psychology of communication associated with other areas of this science that cannot be ignored. If you want to become a successful manipulator, you need to not just be specifically interested in this or that control technique, but also study the human psyche in a comprehensive manner. It’s not for nothing that experts in this business have been doing it all their lives.

TEAM SPIRIT IS THE KEY TO SUCCESS

How to unite the management team?

What kind of team is it if it needs to be united? What makes us a team are common goals and objectives, or rather, joint work to achieve these goals and objectives.

When colleagues in our company stopped relying only on my knowledge and experience, I realized that we had reached a certain level of maturity and our team had become a real team.

I am sure that by this time the employees already felt my trust in them and my willingness to accept constructive criticism.

I have never been a supporter of corporate games, especially in relation to the management team.

What should a manager know about his subordinates?

A leader must know what his subordinates really think about him. To achieve this, very open and trusting relationships must be built between employees and management. I believe the first step is to reduce unnecessary stress on sales managers and then hold them to the plan.

How to instill team spirit among specialists?

You can call a shaman or business coach, who will charge you a good amount of money for joint gaming and ritual practices. Or you can set the tone for your “orchestra” with your own gestures, behavior and support.

The team will follow you if they feel supported by you, and copy your behavior model in communicating with their subordinates. Do you want team spirit in your team? Then show empathy and trust to the team.

And what motivation is better to use?

The team is diversity! A variety of personalities, and each has its own motivators, ambitions and experiences. Moreover, personality is a dynamic concept, and your employee’s motivators may change over time.

Balance and moderation are needed in everything, and in motivating a team, one should find a middle ground between external and internal motivation.