Human Resources Development

Knowing how to lead people

Medium-sized businesses are well known for granting responsibility to young professionals and to integrate them in decision making processes from an early stage on. This motivates. However, much more will be expected from junior staff in future. Especially medium-sized companies have a close look who wants to follow which career to make their way up.

Which college graduate does not wish to take over a management position someday soon? It is better to do so as soon as possible because you studied at least for years and collected knowledge, which you will use now. However managing is not as simple as it looks at first sight. “Leading people there is a lot to it, especially you need human maturity to manage well”, explains Alexandra Kronawitter, human resources specialist from EOS, a company with 300 employees dealing in the field of laser-sinter technology. Layer by layer nearly any sorts of components can be built using a laser and 3-D data. However, maturity is not the only pre-condition. Managers need to know that they have duties and are responsible for their employees, that there are certain group dynamic processes in teams for which require a lot of intuition. According to Alexandra Kronawitter, it is also not always simple to fulfil the change of perspectives without any problems. Further equated colleagues are now immediately higher in the hierarchy than others. “With this new interaction you have first to learn how to handle it”.

For this reason EOS brings future managers close to coming tasks cautiously. Thereby you differ between functional and personnel management. Possible/potential candidates will be chosen individually and they pass through several selection processes ranging from taking over smaller subprojects with the range of responsibility growing continually. If necessary, potential candidates are supported by external coaches who train negotiation skills and develop aims with the potential managers. Cooperative training complements the process of preparing step-wise for a management position.

Talented employees and managers are especially important in medium-sized companies. On the one hand there are less decision-makers in these companies and on the other hand the band of decisions can be multiple bigger than in large corporations. As medium-sized companies are located regionally even if they act international the managers’ character have to match with the philosophy of the company – a matter of fact which does not make it easier to find adequate candidates. You only have to think about the numerous owner-operated and family-run companies managed by clear and stated principles you have to cope with.

At the same time the possibilities to assume bigger responsibility very fast are more promising in medium-sized companies. The hierarchies in large corporations are normally flatter, responsible tasks are handed over more directly and chances to prove oneself are numerous of course.

Source: Karriereführer Mittelstand 2009/2010