What is your people policy?

Working on one of my posts from last week (1-6-10 People…. Yep, ya gotta have some skills) took me on a meander down memory lane. Since I can’t seem to get that darned trip out of my brain, I decided that it was something I could share here……

A few years back, I was asked to speak to our Diversity Council at work. The Diversity Council was a group of employees from all across the organization who’s charter was to foster diversity tolerance within the organization, through a variety of programs, tools, etc. When I asked what they would like the topic of my conversation to be, I was told “people policy”. Of course, my first reaction was, “Huh? Shouldn’t you be getting one of the HR guys for that??” They are, after all, the experts. But my contact quickly clarified, “no, no, we want you to discuss YOUR people policy”. So my second reaction was, “uh, yea well I don’t have one”. Fortunately, rather than blurting that out, I spent some time pondering the concept. And I came to realize that, yes, I do have a personal people policy. It isn’t something a I consciously think about…. It is a gut response. Or maybe a better way to put it….. It is what I do.

What follows here is what I discovered to be my personal people policy.

My first step was to examine the concept in terms of my work. What I discovered is that my people policy has 5 parts.

1. Fair or equal?

There is a ton of discussion in the business environment about equal treatment of employees. Here’s a different view. Bah, to equal. That’s almost sacrilege, right? Maybe so, but my policy has always been to treat people fairly. Why? Because if I do the exact same thing for you and the next employee, it might not be the right thing for the next employee. I don’t have to treat you both equally, I DO have to treat you both fairly….. Doing what is right for each of you and the situation.

2. Trust

Of course, this is a balancing act. You have to balance your trust of each employee between a “hands off” attitude vs. a “follow up” attitude. And no, there isn’t a magical formula for figuring it out. It depends….. On the person, the task, the situation, etc.

3. Respect ability(s)

You have to respect the ability(s) of the people you work with. Each person has their niche. It is your task to find the right job for each person. But even after that, there is always gonna be someone who isn’t happy with their lot in work life. You know, that’s when it is your job to help them understand it is time to move on. I respected the fact that they weren’t cut out for the corporate life we offered and urged them to find what would make them happy, even if that meant it needed to be at another company.

4. Development

I was fortunate in that I worked for a huge company -- there were lots of different things I could do and try, I wasn't stuck in one discipline or department.. Once I went into management, it also gave me the ability to give my people lots of variety and opportunities --- so that we could figure out each person’s niche. I had to consciously allow each of my people the room to grow and change. So once we figured out where someone’s niche was, my next steps were to allow them to grow to the next niche.

5. Listen

You absolutely have to make yourself available. I always felt it was my job to make each person feel important. I actually learned this one from watching my sister with her kids.

You know how it is…… you are sitting there in conversation with another adult and your kid comes up….. “Mom, Mom, Mom, Mom”, trying to get attention. I was deeply impacted by how she handled it. She would pause, turn to her child and say, “give me just a minute to finish this conversation, please”. We would get to a stopping point and then she would turn to her child, and intently listen to whatever he/she had to say. She made her child feel important by giving her undivided attention.

As I prepared for my conversation with the Council, I also realized that my people policy was applied in a far wider scope than just work. For me, it is at home, with friends, with outside interests….. It applies everywhere for me.

For example, at home, don’t we apply differing levels of trust for each of the kiddos? As they grow and learn, doesn’t our trust grow? Or at home, how do we handle respect? In many other societies, respect of their elders is ingrained in their way of life. But in the US, perhaps not so much.

Or with our friends, don’t things evolve? Do you have the same friends today as you did in grade school? Probably not. But if you do, how has your friendship changed and developed? Didn’t you participate in that development? Yep, I think so.

And of course, our outside interests…… Let’s say you serve on a not-for-profit or charitable board or committee. The people you participate with sure aren’t doing it for the pay! So, don’t you listen to them to understand what makes them tick? Why they serve? And then doesn’t that help you in your interactions with them?

So now I ask you, what is your people policy? You have one now. Do you know what it is? I can assure you that the people around you know what it is. Every day, you telegraph your people policy with your words and your actions.