The manager's role is (among other things) to help his staff grow and progress, to support his teams in achieving their collective objectives, and to successfully combine day-to-day operations with corporate strategy. But his job is also to enforce rules and make decisions with which employees do not always agree... 

While everyone has their own management style, developing a managerial posture by default helps to manage the uncomfortable moments in a manager's life, and at the same time maintains his or her leadership and legitimacy. For example, you can be firm without coming across as a little boss, or demonstrate a collaborative spirit without losing control of the final decision.

To help you find and strengthen your default posture, we give you the keys to : 

• Anticipating and responding to group resistance
• Adopting the right posture in the event of conflict
• Demonstrate agility and temporize when necessary ‍

1. Anticipate or manage resistance

Despite your efforts to animate your team and encourage cohesion, as a manager there are times when you will have to react to a group's resistance when you speak. This may involve making a decision that is the subject of debate, or presenting your team with an action plan to achieve set objectives. To succeed in this exercise, develop a strong managerial posture and learn to remain objective and neutral in your reactions.

Develop a high-powered, powerful managerial posture

Assertiveness is your ally in this situation. It enables you to assert your leadership by embodying your messages, and thus better motivate and manage your team. Here are a few practical tips:

• Speak for yourself: personalize your messages as much as possible by using the first person ("I see that", "according to my forecasts"...), 
• Solicit your colleagues: formulate requests for your colleagues : "I ask you to...", "pay close attention to...".
• Do less but better: choose impact rather than exhaustiveness when formulating your messages (1 message > 3 messages).
• Consume transparency with moderation: while acknowledging your mistakes makes you humble and elicits empathy, making a big deal of them risks weakening your credibility and legitimacy as a leader.
• Simplicity works: to engage your audience during your speeches, avoid adverbs, literary formulas and long sentences... 

‍Manageobjections calmly and remain neutral

Your response levers will be different depending on whether the objection is valid or not. 

If the objection is valid, start by thanking the speaker. It's not always easy to dare contradict or interrupt your boss, and the remark may be useful to your whole team. Then practice active listening and show that you understand the point by rephrasing your colleague's remark: "If I understand correctly, what you're saying is that ...? "

Finally, if you have the answer, give your elements directly. Otherwise, leave no doubt that you take the issue seriously: "I'll get back to you on this."

If the objection isn't valid, rather than announcing from the outset that it's stupid or out of line (and shooting yourself in the foot in the process), opt for coaching: get the other person to repeat and rephrase by asking basic questions. You can, for example, use these little formulas: 

•  "I'm not sure I understand, could you repeat that?" 
• "If I understand correctly, you think that securing our capacity over the next quarter is unimportant?"
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If the objection isn't valid and isn't formulated with kindness, reframe in public on the form rather than the substance, because the rules of good manners apply to every employee, and reminding them in public helps to make them accountable: "We can say anything to each other, but I want it to be done in a serene and benevolent way."

2. Handle interpersonal conflicts directly 

Regardless of your management style and interpersonal skills, there are bound to be moments of tension or conflict with your colleagues. Let's take the example of a promotion you obtained at the expense of one of your close colleagues. You become his de facto superior, and he has trouble digesting the news. Your relationship deteriorates day by day, and with it the team's performance...

Let's be honest, it's a bit of a panic at the moment! You're just becoming a manager, you've barely got your feet wet managing teams, and you've already got a relationship problem to deal with. 

A few practical tips should help you defuse the subject: 

• To avoid tricking your colleague, plan a formal one-to-one meeting with him or her: send an unequivocal agenda invitation. By giving him advance notice of the context of your meeting, you'll ensure that he arrives in the right frame of mind.
• Once you're together, don' t beat around the bush. Launch straight into your point with an assertive posture: "I wanted to get together because today I'm bothered in two places: the first is the team's performance. And the second is our relationship, which I think is deteriorating."

Starting with the subject of performance allows you to introduce an objective element and avoid appearing anecdotal to your colleague.

• Assume what you think: if you think the ball is in his court and that he is responsible for the situation, don't play it off like: "There are things that probably come from me too...".
• Once the discussion has started, remain open and attentive in your managerial posture. If your colleague is genuinely surprised by certain points and asks you to clarify them, do so. Conversely, if you're surprised by some of his or her remarks, don't let them slip, and rephrase them as you go along to make sure you've understood.
• Avoid false good ideas designed to "buy the other guy off". Proposing a side project or a new responsibility to your colleague in the hope of calming things down will only displace the problem, in addition to giving him the impression that you are manipulating him... 

3. Emotional intelligence: knowing how to temporize

While relational topics require as much or more preparation as operational ones, they are no less charged with affect. At times, you may feel you're going round in circles in your conversation, failing to establish the closeness necessary for a constructive discussion. 

In such cases, taking a step back and procrastinating will help you: 

• Acknowledge receipt without making a commitment. Try as much as possible to return to an objective element to reiterate the importance of your collaboration: "I don't have an answer to give you, I take note of what you're telling me but I'll have to think about it. In the meantime, I'm counting on your commitment to..." 
• Don't give in to urgency or pressure, no matter how tense. Temporize by appealing to the principle of responsibility: "I can't answer you right away. I'm asking for a little time. In the meantime, you're responsible for the mark you want to leave on the team."
• If necessary, wait a few days to take a fresh look at the subject and set up the sequence you feel is most appropriate.

Whether you're just starting out or already well-established, developing your managerial posture will enable you to rally people around your project, both individually and collectively, and develop your leadership skills in team management.

Our Management Fundamentals training program offers your managers the opportunity to (re)learn the fundamentals of management and adopt new practices for leading a team. Our workshops are designed to stimulate the collective intelligence of our participants, who will be more at ease and more effective in real-life conditions, thanks to a wide range of role-playing exercises to be carried out in small groups.

To find out more about our approach and how we structure our training courses, click here.