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Applying the Tao of Human Interactions

By: Suli Daniel Johnson

Narrated by: Paul Metcalfe

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Publisher's summary

One essential skill for any good manager is communication. It is important to be able to assess the people you are managing and also to be able to deliver the correct messages effectively. It is not only important to deliver the ideas, but it also needs to be done in a way that impacts the audience correctly. In order to do this, it is important to manage the interaction correctly. In order to achieve this, an effective manager must also assess and manage the emotional states of the people involved.

There have been a great deal of books written on this subject, and the breadth spans everything from management to understanding people to leadership. The application of these skills can be directly applied to many areas within the business, such as marketing, sales, and operational management. Effective management of your interactions can increase the effectiveness of the resources you are managing as well as enhance the relationships you have with them.

I have spent a good part of my life working as an employee, but I have also worked in upper management and middle management. My background has primarily been in technology companies. I have also consulted in management for many different types of organizations in the public as well as the private sector. I have worked in specific industries such as transit, technology, public works, city government, the military, and hospitality. My approach has always been to try to create effective modes of interaction and communication between employees and middle management, as well as between management and upper management. There are a multitude of methods and tools available today to enhance management abilities. Some of these include management systems, and others include personality assessments such as Myers-Briggs. Other techniques and skills to enhance your ability to communicate, such as active listening, are very helpful.

I have discovered in my journey from employee to management and finally to consulting that many of the skills are effective; however, the complexity oftentimes makes them challenging to apply. An example of this is the Myers-Briggs personality assessment and profile. In Myers-Briggs, There are sixteen defined personality types. The system does a pretty good job of isolating and determining what type of personality a specific employee may have. It even has detailed systems on how to manage each specific employee. I have found that rarely do managers apply the system effectively. The system has never been scientifically proven, and it is difficult to predict how any specific employee will react in any given workplace situation. It is not that the system is not effective. It is rather that the system is far too complex for most managers to be bothered with. In practice, it generally becomes a company policy at some point. The assessment is done by HR and usually gets filled away as a prerequisite. Most businesses are too concerned with the bottom line or day-to-day operations to use the information all that much. When it is used, it is often for employee objectives and rarely makes its way to operations. I have never seen it applied to employee interaction. Daily interactions are what move the organization forward. For most managers, time is at a premium, and interactions tend to become either superficial or organic.