Management is crucial for an organized life and running different types of management. The success of an organization depends on good management as its backbone. Managing one’s life refers to getting personal things done for achieving life’s goals or objectives while managing an organization refers to getting things done for and through others to achieve its objectives. Here, let’s know the Management Tips.
Management is defined as the process in which one administers or controls the organization’s affairs, irrespective of its size, structure, nature, or type. It can be said to be an act where one creates and maintains a business environment suitable for the members of the organization to work together and achieve their objectives effectively and efficiently.
Management is concerned with the efficient utilization of five M’s that is men, material, money, machine, and methods. This is made possible when one can properly direct, coordinate, and integrate the organization’s processes and activities for achieving the desired objectives.
The Characteristics of Management
The functions, processes, and activities in an organization are all interrelated. It is the purpose of the management to bring them together to achieve the organization’s goals. The characteristics of management are as follows:
- Universal – Management is universal since all kinds of organizations, profit or non-profit require proper management for their daily activities.
- Goal-Oriented – The management helps in achieving all the predetermined goals and objectives of an organization.
- Continuous Process – Management is an ongoing process that exists from the organization’s beginning till the end. It is essential for different departments of the organization such as finance, human resources, production, or marketing.
- Group Activity – Every person in an organization has personal values, beliefs, needs, and expectations. But in an organization, they come together to work for the same goal that needs teamwork, coordination, and supervision which the management provides.
- Dynamic Function – The business environment of any organization consists of various factors such as legal, social, economic, technological, and political, and a slight change in them would cause certain setbacks. This is where management comes in.
- Intangible Force – Management is a force that is present but neither exists nor can be touched.
This chart shows the different characteristics of management
Different levels of Management
There are three levels of management in the management hierarchy according to the rank and positions of managers. They are as follows:
- Top-Level Management – The highest level in the hierarchy structure of an organization consisting of the Boards of Directors and Chief Executives. They usually formulate plans, policies, and strategies and define the objectives.
- Middle-Level Management – The second level that works as a bridge between the top and the lower level management includes department and division heads and managers. They implement and formulate plans and strategies that are formulated by the top executives.
- Lower-Level Management – The level is known as the operational or functional that consists of supervisors, foremen, and first-line managers. They are responsible for direct interaction with the workers. They are essential since they reduce the wastage of resources like time and improves the quantity and quality of the work.
This pyramid chart shows the different levels of management in an organization
Basic Functions of Management
The five basic functions of management that are widely accepted are as follows:
- Planning
- Organizing
- Staffing
- Directing
- Controlling
- Planning
Planning is future-oriented and is responsible for determining the direction of the organization. It is a continuous process that systematically and rationally makes decisions. Besides being an organized foresight, it is also hindsight that is corrective. It can predict the future and foresee the current actions of the organization would have in the long run.
The planning program consists of both internal and external factors. The internal factors include pattern change of the workforce, decentralization, limited opportunities for growth as a result of diversified saturation, more complex structures of the organization, etc.
The external factors consist of dynamic advancements of technology, international political environments that are unstable, general economic trends concerning inflation and interest rates, shortage of capital and material, etc.
- Organizing
Organizing needs a formal authoritative structure as well as its direction and flow that defines, arranges, and coordinates work subdivisions with each other to attain the organization’s objectives.
It involves assigning activities to proper staff, delegating the authority for carrying out the task cohesively, and determining activities that are necessary for achieving the company goals.
The function of organizing hence includes:
- Identifying tasks to be performed and grouping them when required.
- Assigning them to the staff along with explaining their responsibility and authority
- Delegating authority to the personnel
- Forming a relation between responsibility and authority
- Coordination of these activities
- Staffing
The function of hiring and retaining a workforce suitable for the managerial and non-managerial positions of the organization is known as staffing. It involves the process where employees are recruited, trained, developed, compensated, and evaluated and the workforce is maintained with the necessary motivations and incentives.
This function proves to be more complex than the rest since every employee differs in age, knowledge, experience, intelligence, physical condition, skills, and attitude which complicates it so much more. As a result, management must understand their operational and technical competence besides the sociological and psychological structure.
- Directing
Supervision, leadership, motivation, and communication fall under the direction function. This is necessary for the staff to function most efficiently to reach the desired goals.
Supervision of the subordinates results in continuous progress that assures the superiors as well of the smooth direction. Leadership includes giving out instructions and helping or guiding the subordinates about the procedures.
Motivation is necessary since high motivation leads to outstanding performance with minimum direction. Communication is the key for the exchange of information both ways for passing the information and receiving feedback.
- Controlling
Controlling is the function that includes activities that make sure there are no deviations from any plans that are pre-arranged. These consist of standards established for work performance, taking the actions to correct deviations, and measuring the performance besides comparing it to the set standards.
People Management
People management includes certain policies to hire, train and retain talent for smooth operations of the organization. It is often referred to as Human Resources management as well. Some of the aspects it covers are:
- Recruiting personnel
- Employment laws
- Training of personnel
- Evaluating performance
- Collaboration
- Salary management
- Health and safety of the staff
- Employee fringe benefits
- Motivation, bonuses, and rewards for the employees
Skills for Good Management
The necessary skills required for proper management are listening attentively, solving conflicts, flexibility, patience, and having trust.
- Active Listening – In this practice, one needs to attentively listen and give his/her full attention to the speaker. They should maintain eye contact, give cues of understanding, and remove any distractions while listening.
- Conflict Resolution – The skill of conflict resolution helps one to analyze any situation as well as find the root cause. One can act as a mediator in finding compromises between the parties involved.
- Flexibility – To be flexible while scheduling adjustments and providing remote work options. Feedback from the employees helps in creating flexible personalized options.
- Patience – This skill involves respecting, empathizing, and having kindness for helping one overcome obstacles. Patience is important while bringing new personnel onboard, providing instructions to the employees regarding new processes, solving certain obstacles, and managing conflicts.
- Trust – Trust between the manager and employees results in greater productivity and increased efficiency. Trust and support between team members are necessary.
Management Tips
One should keep learning new techniques to hone their management skills whether they are new managers or experienced ones. Proper management of people will result in meeting deadlines in time, the camaraderie between employees, and identification of growth opportunities. These are some tips that will help in personnel management and reach objectives.
- Managing Personal Workload
Before anyone can manage others, they should be capable of managing and taking care of themselves. Personal schedules should be made a priority, saving time, setting aside a period Daily for completing personal work without any interruptions.
Manager often makes the mistake of overly committing themselves to their teams that result in burnout as make them less effective. Only when one is confident in their work, can they invest their time in working with others.
- Knowing the Team
The crucial step of managing a team is to get to know them. People with different personalities respond differently with different leadership styles. Some need hand-s-on management while others prefer when they can be free and flexible.
Leaders with strong abilities can easily adjust their managerial techniques based on the respective team member they are working with by using their talents and potentials with personal attention.
They have to learn the things that inspire the team, the methods used for work completion, their knowledge and skills, and factors that hinder their performance. This can be made possible through attentive listening and communication skills.
- Task Delegation
Managers can give time to the high-level duties instead of micromanaging every duty by trusting with key tasks. Clear knowledge of the strength, weaknesses, skills, and experience of all the members will help in delegating the jobs to employees who are good at it.
This gives them confidence in completing the project. When responsibilities are delegated to other people, a manager demonstrates his/her trust in certain abilities and completes their tasks.
- Controlling Communication
Managers should take an initiative during communication instead of waiting for team members’ feedback on concerns, updates, and questions. New managers should explain the communication they have with the team.
Identifying the main channels for communication like emails or chat servers for everyone to understand. So managers should regularly ask their employees about the work progress and communicate properly for solving obstacles.
- Clear Workflow Identification
To identify the members’ roles and mapping out the expected workflow processes. Managers should have a complete understanding of how every role impacts the whole project. This will give them a clearer perspective and set proper deadlines. Without proper understanding, it can result in delay and confusion as well as decreased efficiency in solving the issue.
- Having Clear Goals
The setting of goals for the team as well as for personal life would guide the management efforts. In the beginning, setting goals provide a leader’s guideline to the team. It’s important to note down the goals that could be later used to assess project successes. The team members should ask questions and suggest strategies for exceeding the set goals.
The SMART method is ideal while creating goals. SMART means Specific, measurable, relevant, and time-based. This is required for goals having guidelines to record the progress on a schedule.
- Demonstration of Consistent Leadership
A good manager needs to build trust with the team members. Consistent behavior is necessary to show one trusts and respects others. This requires following through with every promise made. Despite personalizing management techniques for every member, one should treat everyone equally without display of any favoritism.
- Giving Positive Reinforcement
Positive reinforcement is an effective technique of management in which one rewards those who demonstrate workplace excellence. It is necessary to be vocal when the production quality increases to encourage and celebrate the member’s success. Verbal praise or reward system motivates the team on working more efficiently for future goals. Encourage such talents to be confident in developing their skills further.
- Meet personal Expectations
To be an example for the team and display the same standards expected from them. Even if one is more flexible in their workload, they need to abide by the same deadlines and expectations set for the team.
Better communication with the team regarding the steps taken to accomplish the work would demonstrate the personal challenges taken in the success of the entire team.
Conclusion
Management requires efficient coordination for the integration of activities, operations, and processes of an organization. The synchronization of efforts results in every element’s contribution to the organization’s success. Good managers should first work on themselves before managing others since they have to be role models. The most important thing while managing others is to keep in mind that they are not just the subordinates or the company’s employees but fellow humans. It is only natural they fail at times, and they need proper encouragement and guidance in those times of crisis.
Frequently Asked Questions
- Are the necessary educational qualifications enough for being a good manager?
One needs to have a set of skills besides the required academic qualifications. After all human management is different from machine management.
- Are these management tips valuable?
Managers all over the world have been following such tips in managing their teams. These are just a handful of techniques. There are quite a lot more of those.
- Are managers responsible if a member fails to complete his/her task within the deadline?
If case the project gets delayed, the employee, the manager, and the rest of the team are equally responsible for it.
- Is top-level management more important than lower-level management?
The top-level is equally as important as the lower level. They are all necessary for the smooth running of an organization as they have different tasks to perform.
