Strategies for Managing People: Beyond Command and Control

Effective management isn’t about control—it’s about creating environments where people can bring their full capabilities to work that matters. The most powerful strategies for managing people move beyond outdated command-and-control models to approaches that unleash potential, foster engagement, and create sustainable excellence.

For women leaders navigating complex expectations and systemic barriers, developing effective people management strategies takes on additional dimensions. It requires balancing authentic leadership approaches with practical techniques that work within existing systems while gradually transforming them.

This comprehensive guide explores research-backed strategies for managing people that drive both exceptional performance and genuine wellbeing—approaches that align with your leadership values rather than forcing you to adopt inauthentic management styles.

The Evolution of People Management

Before diving into specific strategies for managing people, it’s worth understanding how management approaches have evolved and why outdated models persist despite their limitations.

From Control to Cultivation

Traditional management approaches emerged from industrial-era thinking, when work primarily involved standardized, repetitive tasks that required minimal judgment or creativity. These models focused on:

• Detailed supervision and direction
• Standardized processes with minimal deviation
• Closely monitored performance against fixed metrics
• Clear hierarchical decision-making

While these approaches made sense for factory-line production, they fundamentally misalign with today’s knowledge work that requires judgment, creativity, collaboration, and continuous adaptation.

Modern effective management has evolved toward cultivation approaches that:

• Create enabling conditions for excellence rather than controlling processes
• Focus on outcomes while providing flexibility in methods
• Build intrinsic motivation rather than relying primarily on external incentives
• Distribute appropriate decision authority to those closest to the work

This evolution reflects deeper understanding of human motivation and the changing nature of work itself.

Why Outdated Models Persist

Despite overwhelming evidence favoring modern approaches, outdated management models persist for several reasons:

• They offer the illusion of control and predictability
• They align with existing performance management systems
• They require less vulnerability from managers
• They match prevailing mental models of what management “should” look like

For women in management roles, these dynamics create particular challenges. Research consistently shows that women face higher standards and narrower behavioral expectations, creating pressure to adopt management approaches that may feel inauthentic or ineffective.

Understanding these contextual realities allows you to develop management strategies that are both effective and authentic to your leadership style.

Foundational Strategies for Managing People Effectively

Let’s explore the most powerful approaches for bringing out the best in the people you manage, starting with foundational strategies that apply across contexts.

1. Create Meaningful Connection Through Genuine Presence

Perhaps the most fundamental of all strategies for managing people is creating genuine connection through how you show up in everyday interactions. This means:

• Bringing full attention to conversations rather than mental multitasking
• Demonstrating active listening that seeks understanding rather than waiting to respond
• Recognizing and responding to emotional cues, not just verbal content
• Showing appropriate personal interest beyond immediate work tasks
• Maintaining consistent engagement rather than fluctuating availability

This connection provides the relational foundation upon which all other management strategies build. Without it, even technically sound approaches feel mechanical and fail to engage the full person.

For women managers navigating complex likability dynamics, this relational foundation often represents a natural strength that creates leadership advantage when deliberately developed and deployed.

2. Clarify Purpose, Expectations, and Success Criteria

Few things undermine performance and engagement more fundamentally than confusion about what success looks like. One of the most powerful strategies for managing people is establishing crystal-clear:

• Connection between individual work and broader purpose
• Specific performance expectations and priorities
• Quality standards and success criteria
• Decision authorities and boundaries
• Communication and coordination requirements

This clarity creates the cognitive architecture within which people can work with confidence and autonomy. Without it, even the most talented individuals will struggle with misalignment, wasted effort, and frustration.

3. Provide Regular, Growth-Oriented Feedback

Effective feedback represents one of the highest-leverage strategies for managing people, yet many managers either avoid it entirely or deliver it ineffectively. Powerful feedback approaches include:

• Regular cadence rather than annual events
• Balance between reinforcing strengths and addressing development areas
• Specificity that makes feedback actionable
• Forward-looking guidance rather than backward-looking judgment
• Two-way dialogue rather than one-way pronouncements

When designed thoughtfully, feedback becomes an engine of continuous improvement rather than a source of anxiety or defensiveness.

For women managers who sometimes face different reactions to direct feedback than male counterparts, developing nuanced feedback approaches allows you to maintain necessary candor while managing potential resistance.

4. Delegate Strategically for Growth, Not Just Efficiency

Delegation represents one of the most powerful yet challenging strategies for managing people. Effective delegation involves:

• Matching assignments to both current capabilities and development goals
• Providing appropriate context and decision-making parameters
• Remaining available for support without taking back the work
• Debriefing afterward to consolidate learning
• Gradually expanding scope and complexity as confidence grows

This developmental approach to delegation creates a virtuous cycle that expands individual capabilities while freeing your time for more strategic management work.

For new managers still discovering what makes a good leader, mastering delegation often represents one of the most significant challenges, particularly when transitioning from individual contributor roles where personal excellence was the primary success metric.

5. Create Psychological Safety as Your Competitive Advantage

Google’s landmark research identified psychological safety—the belief that you won’t be punished or humiliated for speaking up with ideas, questions, concerns, or mistakes—as the single most important factor differentiating high-performing teams.

As a manager, you create psychological safety through:

• Acknowledging your own limitations and mistakes
• Demonstrating curiosity rather than judgment when problems arise
• Actively inviting diverse perspectives, especially from quieter team members
• Responding constructively to bad news or challenging feedback
• Protecting team members who take reasonable risks that don’t succeed

When your team operates with high psychological safety, they innovate more readily, surface problems earlier, collaborate more effectively, and bring their full intelligence to complex challenges.

For women managers developing authentic ways to demonstrate leadership at work, creating psychological safety offers a powerful leverage point that often aligns naturally with relational strengths.

Situational Strategies for Managing People

Beyond these foundational approaches, certain situations require specialized management strategies. Let’s explore approaches for common management challenges.

Managing Performance Issues Effectively

Few management responsibilities create more anxiety than addressing performance problems. Yet handled effectively, these situations often transform into significant growth opportunities. Consider these approaches:

Start with curious inquiry rather than assumptions. Performance issues typically have multiple contributing factors, including potential gaps in direction, resources, training, or feedback. Begin by understanding the complete picture.

Address patterns, not incidents. Focus on recurring patterns rather than isolated events, which helps separate systemic issues from temporary fluctuations.

Be specific about impact, not just behavior. Clearly articulate how performance gaps affect colleagues, customers, and organizational objectives, creating motivation for change.

Co-create improvement plans with clear milestones. Develop specific action plans with measurable progress points rather than vague improvement directives.

Document appropriately while maintaining relationship. Balance necessary documentation with continued investment in the relationship, avoiding slipping into purely procedural approaches.

This balanced approach addresses performance issues directly while maintaining the relationship foundation essential for improvement.

Managing Through Organizational Change

As organizations continuously evolve, managers play crucial roles in helping teams navigate change effectively. Key strategies include:

Provide context that helps people understand the “why” behind changes. Connect organizational decisions to broader purpose and strategy rather than presenting changes as arbitrary directives.

Acknowledge the emotional reality of transition. Recognize that change creates natural emotional responses, including potential loss, uncertainty, and anxiety, rather than expecting purely rational reactions.

Maintain appropriate transparency about what is and isn’t known. Share information openly while being honest about remaining uncertainties rather than creating false certainty.

Create stability in processes or relationships where possible. Identify elements that can remain consistent amid change, creating anchors of stability during transition.

Focus on the constants of purpose and values. Emphasize how core purpose and values remain consistent even as methods and structures evolve.

These approaches help teams maintain productivity and wellbeing even during significant organizational transitions.

Managing Diverse Teams Effectively

As workplaces become increasingly diverse, managing across differences becomes a core leadership capability. Effective strategies include:

Recognize both visible and invisible dimensions of diversity. Move beyond obvious demographic categories to understand the full spectrum of diversity, including thinking styles, experiences, and perspectives.

Create inclusive decision processes that leverage diverse perspectives. Design approaches that ensure all voices contribute rather than defaulting to the loudest or most senior.

Address unconscious bias through systemic interventions. Implement structured processes that minimize bias impact rather than relying solely on awareness.

Develop culturally intelligent communication approaches. Adapt communication strategies to different cultural preferences and needs rather than assuming one-size-fits-all effectiveness.

Build genuine relationships across difference. Invest in authentic connection rather than remaining at surface-level professional interactions.

These approaches transform diversity from abstract value to practical advantage by leveraging different perspectives for better decisions and outcomes.

Managing Up and Across: Extending Your Influence

Effective people management extends beyond direct reports to include managing relationships with your own leaders and cross-functional colleagues.

Strategies for Managing Up Effectively

Managing up—influencing those to whom you report—represents a crucial dimension of overall management effectiveness. Consider these approaches:

Understand your manager’s priorities, preferences, and pressures. Develop nuanced insight into what matters most to your manager and the constraints within which they operate.

Adapt your communication to their decision-making style. Observe how your manager processes information and makes decisions, then align your approach accordingly.

Bring solutions alongside problems. When raising issues, include potential approaches rather than presenting problems in isolation.

Make effective use of their time and attention. Be thoughtful about when and how you engage, respecting the scarcity of these resources.

Build trust through reliability and appropriate transparency. Demonstrate consistent follow-through while being forthright about challenges rather than hiding difficulties.

These approaches create productive upward relationships that expand your influence while helping your manager succeed.

Strategies for Cross-Functional Influence

As organizations increasingly organize around integrated processes rather than strict functional boundaries, cross-functional influence becomes essential. Consider these approaches:

Develop genuine understanding of other functions’ priorities and constraints. Take time to understand different perspectives rather than viewing situations solely through your functional lens.

Find mutual benefit rather than zero-sum positioning. Look for approaches that address multiple priorities rather than competing for resources or attention.

Build relationship capital before you need it. Develop connections during normal operations rather than waiting until urgent needs create transactional interactions.

Adapt your language to different functional dialects. Learn to translate your concerns into terms that resonate with different functional perspectives.

Be generous with recognition and support across boundaries. Create reciprocity through acknowledging others’ contributions and offering assistance without immediate return expectations.

These approaches expand your influence beyond formal authority, creating the cross-functional collaboration essential for organizational effectiveness.

Special Considerations for Women Managers

For women implementing strategies for managing people, certain common challenges require additional consideration. Let’s explore approaches that address these realities while creating authentic management impact.

Navigating Double Binds and Contradictory Expectations

Research consistently demonstrates that women managers often face contradictory expectations to be both assertive enough to demonstrate authority and accommodating enough to meet likability expectations. Rather than trying to perfectly calibrate this impossible balance, consider:

Lead with questions that guide thinking rather than direct statements. Use inquiry to shape direction while creating engagement.

Frame decisions in terms of shared objectives rather than personal preference. Connect direction to team and organizational goals rather than individual authority.

Use “we” language that emphasizes collective ownership. Create linguistic inclusion while maintaining necessary decisiveness.

Develop a personal leadership model that feels authentic rather than performative. Define your unique approach rather than constantly adapting to contradictory external expectations.

These approaches allow you to guide effectively while minimizing potential backlash that might undermine your management influence.

Building Credibility and Authority Authentically

Women managers sometimes face heightened scrutiny around credibility and authority. Address this through:

Leading with clear expertise in relevant domains. Establish unambiguous competence in areas central to your management responsibilities.

Making values-based decisions transparently. Articulate the principles guiding your choices rather than simply announcing decisions.

Building alliances that amplify your influence. Develop strategic relationships that extend your impact beyond individual authority.

Being decisive on issues that matter most. Demonstrate clear direction on high-priority items while creating appropriate involvement on others.

These approaches establish your management authority through substance rather than style, creating sustainable credibility.

Creating Support Systems for Sustainable Leadership

The additional complexities women managers navigate make support systems particularly crucial. Consider developing:

Peer communities for shared experience and strategies. Connect with others facing similar challenges to exchange approaches and provide mutual support.

Mentoring relationships for perspective and guidance. Cultivate relationships with experienced leaders who can offer insight from their own journeys.

Coaching resources for targeted development. Work with professionals who can provide objective feedback and development support.

Personal renewal practices that sustain energy. Create habits that maintain the physical and emotional resources needed for sustained leadership effectiveness.

These support structures provide both practical guidance and emotional sustainability amid the additional complexities women managers often navigate.

Measuring and Evolving Your Management Effectiveness

The most powerful strategies for managing people evolve through deliberate assessment and refinement. Consider these approaches for continuous improvement:

Create Multidimensional Feedback Channels

Rather than relying solely on formal review processes, develop diverse feedback channels including:

• Regular check-ins with direct reports
• Skip-level conversations with their team members
• Peer feedback from fellow managers
• Self-assessment against specific management goals

This multidimensional feedback provides richer insight than any single source alone.

Focus on Leading Indicators, Not Just Results

While results matter, they represent lagging indicators that appear only after patterns are established. Consider also tracking leading indicators like:

• Team member engagement levels
• Psychological safety assessments
• Development progress against individual goals
• Cross-functional relationship quality
• Innovation and improvement suggestions

These leading indicators provide earlier insight into management effectiveness, allowing faster adjustments when needed.

Develop Reflection Practices

Regular reflection transforms raw experience into usable insight. Consider practices like:

• Weekly review of management wins and challenges
• Monthly assessment of progress against development goals
• Quarterly deeper evaluation of management approach
• Annual comprehensive review of leadership evolution

These structured reflections convert experiences into lasting capability development rather than merely accumulating time in role.

Creating Your Management Development Plan

Based on the strategies explored above, consider creating a personalized plan for evolving your management effectiveness. This might include:

1. Assess Your Current Management Landscape

Begin by honestly evaluating:

• Which management approaches currently create the greatest positive impact?
• What feedback patterns have emerged about your management effectiveness?
• Which situations consistently create challenges for you?
• What organizational expectations shape your management context?

This assessment creates a realistic foundation for targeted development.

2. Select Priority Development Areas

Rather than trying to implement every possible management strategy simultaneously, identify 1-3 initial areas where focused development would create the greatest impact. Consider:

• Where do important team needs align with your development interests?
• Which capabilities would address your most significant challenges?
• What approaches would feel most authentic to your leadership style?

This focused approach creates momentum through visible progress rather than diffusing effort across too many initiatives.

3. Create Concrete Practice Plans

For each priority area, develop specific implementation approaches. Consider:

• What specific behaviors will you exhibit in different situations?
• What resources or support might help your development?
• How will you measure progress and impact?
• What potential obstacles might arise, and how will you address them?

These concrete plans transform general intentions into specific actions that create real development.

For those interested in understanding the broader leadership context of effective management, our guide on the 7 C’s of great leadership provides a comprehensive framework for the core qualities that drive leadership excellence.

Conclusion: Management as a Transformative Relationship

The most powerful strategies for managing people ultimately reflect a fundamental mindset shift—from seeing management as technical administration to embracing it as a transformative relationship that brings out the best in both you and the people you lead.

When you approach management through this lens, you recognize that your role isn’t primarily about controlling processes or ensuring compliance. Rather, it’s about creating the conditions where people can bring their full capabilities to work that matters, while developing new ones along the way.

For women navigating complex management landscapes, this transformative approach allows you to lead in ways that align with your values and strengths rather than requiring constant adaptation to contradictory expectations. You can manage in ways that feel genuine rather than performative, creating sustainable impact rather than exhausting compliance.

The strategies explored in this guide provide diverse pathways for effective management, but the most powerful approaches will always be those that authentically reflect your unique leadership voice while addressing the specific needs of your team and organization. The question isn’t which management style to emulate, but rather how to express your distinctive leadership capabilities in ways that create maximum positive impact.

As you implement these strategies for managing people, remember that management development is an ongoing journey rather than a destination. Each interaction creates both immediate impact and expanded capability for future effectiveness, gradually extending your leadership reach and influence.

The world of leadership needs your unique voice and perspective—not a conformist version constrained by outdated management stereotypes, but your authentic leadership presence bringing out the best in the people you have the privilege to manage.

Ready to continue your management development journey? Explore our guide on how to be an organized manager for practical systems that create team efficiency, or discover insights about the signs of a bad manager to understand behaviors that undermine team effectiveness and how to avoid them.