Top Management Techniques and Strategies for Managers

What are Management Techniques?

Being a great boss means helping to boost employee productivity and job satisfaction through effective management. Good management techniques involve creating a supportive atmosphere where employees have autonomy and are motivated to excel. We’ve all had bad managers. Ineffective managers might micromanage, be overly controlling, focusing too much on details and what hasn’t gone right, or fostering poor work/life balance.

Whether you want to hear it or not, employee productivity starts with good management. According to the Bureau of National Affairs, U.S. businesses lose $11 billion a year to employee turnover, often resulting from disenchanted workers. The good news is that there are simple things you can do as a small business owner to manage your employees more effectively to keep your team motivated and productive.

In this article we’ll cover effective management techniques, as well as management techniques for new managers, management techniques to improve productivity, and management techniques to motivate employees.

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Top management techniques

Dole out recognition when it’s deserved.

An employee study by gamification and behavior management platform Badgeville found that 70 percent of workers are more motivated by recognition than by monetary rewards. Employees who are acknowledged for their good work tend to feel more of an emotional commitment to their job, which results directly in increased effort better productivity and improvement to your bottom line). What’s more, a study by TINYpulse, an employee engagement firm, found that only 21 percent of employees feel strongly valued at work. So don’t be shy — bring out the warm-and-fuzzies for a job well done.

Make company goals transparent and provide consistent feedback.

Sharing the company’s goals and vision with employees helps them understand the meaning of their day-to-day tasks and the value that they each bring to the job. Set up monthly or quarterly check-ins to provide honest feedback — even if that includes constructive criticism. When you hold your employees accountable, they’re more likely to deliver if it’s crystal clear what they’re expected to achieve.

Provide training and career development.

Work with your employees to identify areas of growth and learn what parts of the business they’re most interested in. By providing training and career development, you help employees develop new skills which is an asset for your business and a way of showing you care about your employees future, which in turn builds loyalty.

Troubleshoot problem areas.

Be clear with staff about your expectations. When you hit a trouble spot, give them specific, timely feedback about what isn’t working. Together, try and find a solution that works for everyone. For example, if an employee is consistently late to work, talk to them about how their tardiness impacts other people, learning more about the root cause. Once you have more empathy about what’s going on it will be easier to come up with an appropriate solution together.

Know when to let someone go.

One underperformer on the team can reduce the team’s productivity by 30 to 40 percent, but if you do come across a few bad apples, don’t be too quick to hand them the pink slip. Instead, show them you’re willing to help them get better before giving up. (See number four.) If their behavior doesn’t improve, or gets worse, it could be time to part ways. This can be especially hard if you used to be able to really count on them and their work ethic has deteriorated, or if they’ve been working for you for a while and you like them personally. It’s not easy to fire people (be sure to consult with a professional to make sure you’re checking all the right legal boxes), but sometimes letting go of a problem employee is what’s best for the business, and perhaps for them as well, since they may find a new job which is hopefully a better fit.

Management Styles

What are management styles and how do they differ? The consulting firm Hay-McBer identified six different management styles which were popularized in Daniel Goleman’s best selling book Emotional Intelligence. Their research states that the most effective leaders use four management styles, typically in combination. Some styles are more productive than others depending on the situation. We’ll go through each in turn:

Most effective management styles

The Authoritative Style

The most effective management style, the authoritative leader is a “firm but fair” visionary who gives their employees clear, long-term direction. This approach works in most work environments, especially when the business lacks direction.

The Affiliative Style

The goal of this type of manager is to create harmony between employees, keeping everyone happy. This style is especially good to pull out of your management toolbox when you’re building a team, need to boost morale, or foster better communication.

The Democratic Style

This participative style aims to build consensus and commitment in the group. Perhaps most effective with more experienced employees, the democratic style can contribute to high morale, and the feeling that everyone has a stake in the business’s success.

The Coaching Style

A highly effective management style, the coaching style’s main objective is to foster long-term professional development in their employees. This style works best with motivated employees who want to grow. It’s challenging when the manager is less experienced and may be less effective with employees who are poor performers.

Least effective management styles

The Coercive Style

This extremely controlling management style demands employees do what the boss tells them to. Employees don’t learn much from this approach and can become frustrated not having autonomy. It should generally be avoided, though it is effective when there’s a legitimate crisis.

The Pacesetting Style

This management style should be used sparingly at most, and if used, should only be deployed alongside other styles from the top section. The goal of this style is to complete tasks to a very high standard. The pacesetting manager takes on many tasks themselves so they can exert greater control over results and expects employees to follow their lead. It can create a toxic work environment and low morale.

Top management techniques for new managers

If you’re haven’t managed people before, you might feel overwhelmed and uncertain how to lead. Here are some top management techniques for new managers.

Manage, but don’t micromanage.

No one likes the feeling of having a boss constantly looking over his or her shoulder. Make the conscious choice to be the kind of manager who gives employees enough autonomy to feel encouraged, motivated, and trusted to do a good job. Empower them by providing direction and offering assistance, then step back and let them work in their own style.

Lead by example.

If you’re always stressed and disgruntled, what kind of standard does that set for your employees? Hold yourself accountable, first and foremost, and be genuine with your team, instilling in them a sense of trust in your working relationship. Good habits at the top have a way of organically trickling down to the bottom. Be the kind of manager who employees admire and they’ll work that much harder not to let you down.

Get to know your employees.

Everyone has different communication styles and different ways of working. It’s important to get to know your employees to build a strong rapport, and understand how to best communicate with them. Lindsey Pollak, author of the management book Becoming the Boss, stresses the importance of face-to-face communication rather than being overly reliant on email. Talking in-person can help you work through issues that need to be discussed and it can lead to productive problem solving.

Top management techniques to improve productivity

As a manager you want your employees to be productive and efficient, using their time effectively. Of course you want to be as productive as possible too, which can be hard with the various responsibilities you’ve got competing for your attention. These management techniques will help improve your productivity so your business can run more smoothly.

Let technology do the heavy lifting.

We’re lucky to live in an age when technology makes work life easier and more efficient. All companies, no matter how big or small, can benefit from hardware and software geared toward increasing productivity. Cloud storage and collaborative applications like Asana, which can help teams manage projects and work flow, could be well worth the investment, as are things like remote access and mobile device connectivity.

Focus on the big picture.

As a manager you need to focus on your business’s larger objectives as opposed to shorter-term personal goals. Good managers trust their capable employees to execute projects, while they take care of higher-level objectives and support their direct reports. This strategy will help everyone be more productive.

Model good time management.

Take care of urgent tasks as soon as possible and encourage your employees to do the same. It’s a good habit to start the day with the most pressing or unpleasant tasks, so you get them out of the way. You’ll feel better knowing that task is taken care of. As a manager it’s important to help remove any roadblocks for your employees so they can do their work effectively.

Top management techniques to motivate employees

Motivated employees take more pride in their work and are more likely to stick around. The TINYpulse study discovered that the two top reasons employees feel motivated to excel and go the extra mile at work, are “camaraderie, peer motivation” and an “intrinsic desire to do a good job”. That means creating a friendly, supportive work environment where people feel valued can go a long way to motivate employees. Here are some other management techniques for motivating your staff.

Provide supplemental training and educational opportunities.

Don’t let talented employees hit a plateau. Build training and educational opportunities into the framework of your business. If you’re a small company, this doesn’t have to mean spending big dollars on career coaches, conferences, or fancy seminars. It could be as simple as designating mentors within the company. Making the effort to develop high performers means less turnover in the long run. The TINYpulse study discovered over a quarter of employees feel they don’t have the tools they need to succeed in their roles. Better training can help. According to Business Know-How, a 10-percent increase in workforce training can result in an 8.6-percent gain in productivity.

Offer bonuses to reward good performers.

Cost of living raises are expected and don’t serve as much of a motivator for employees. Indeed, 90 percent of businesses offer annual raises across the company on a fixed annual rate, according to a study by Mercer. Bonuses, also known as variable pay, are increasingly used to reward individual employees for a job well done, and based on a Aon Hewitt survey, they make up 12.7 percent of compensation.

Make employee happiness a priority.

A happy employee is a healthy (and productive) employee. Eighty-nine percent of workers count office rapport as important to their overall quality of life, according to Globoforce’s Fall 2014 Workforce Mood Tracker survey, and the more friendships employees have at work, the less likely they are to leave for another job. Plus, these emotional connections are directly related to a more productive and engaged team. In addition to fostering interpersonal relationships, schedule team happy hours or outings, and plan team-building exercises at least once a year. Put a vacation policy in place that actually allows your staff to take time off. Encouraging these “brain breaks” allows your team to come back feeling refreshed, recharged, and more productive.

Image credit: “Women in Tech 61” by WOCinTech Chat, Flickr, CC by 2.0, cropped from original.

4 Management Styles to Strive For and 4 to Avoid

Growing up, a few of my baseball coaches were some of the most ruthless and demanding people I’ve ever met. They used fear to push my team to our physical and emotional limits, intimidated us with cruel ultimatums, and didn’t really seem to care about us as people. They did everything they could to win — and punished us when we didn’t.

When I started doing internships in college, I expected my managers to be just like my coaches. Since businesses actually have to make money, and not just win a few games, I was scared to mess up.

But at the end of my last internship, I realized I’ve never really felt afraid to fail in the working world because my managers were the complete opposite of my coaches. They were patient, understanding, and, most of all, nice. It seemed like they cared about me just as much as they cared about their job, even though there’s a lot more at stake in the office than on a high school baseball field.

Although my managers have treated me well, there are still managers out there who are just like some of my baseball coaches: fear-mongering, intimidating, and mean. These tactics might produce short-term results, but, in the long-term, all they lead to are unhappy employees, underwhelming results, and a high turnover rate.

You don’t want to be a jerk at work, especially if you’re a manager, so check out this overview of the best leadership styles to adopt — and the worst ones to avoid.

Best Types of Management Styles Visionary Democratic Transformational Coaching

1. Visionary Management Style

A visionary manager communicates a purpose and direction that her employees believe in, which convinces her team to work hard to execute her vision.

After setting their team’s vision and overarching strategy, visionary managers usually let their employees get to work on their own terms, as long as they’re productive. Managers will mainly check in on their team to make sure they’re on the right track or to share new insights.

This gives their employees a great sense of autonomy, which all managers need to provide — after all, self-direction is a basic psychological need. When humans work on tasks that they have more control over, they feel more satisfied and motivated to complete them. Letting their employees' personal motivations determine the direction of their work is the best way for managers to boost their team's engagement and confidence.

Visionary managers are also known to be firm yet fair. Their vision is usually set in place, but they’re always open to listening to their employees’ ideas and willing to change their plan if a great idea is presented.

To better execute their vision, visionary managers give a lot of feedback to their employees about their performance and praise them when their performance meets or exceeds expectations.

This type of management style is hard to pull off, though. It’s crucial that you sell your employees on the purpose of your vision before you expect them to execute it. If you don’t, they won’t be inspired to turn your vision into a reality.

Example of the Visionary Leadership Style in Action: Elon Musk

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It takes a clear vision and persistent leader like Elon Musk to transform a company like Tesla into the tech giant it is today. While some may mock the CEO’s cryptocurrency hobby and scoff at his larger-than-life plans to send everyday people to space, there’s no denying that his visionary leadership style has impacted not only his employees but the global community.

2. Democratic Management Style

In democratic management, the majority rules. Managers let their employees participate in the decision-making process because they value their team’s diversity of ideas, and understand that people are the key to a team’s success.

Democratic managers ultimately approve of all decisions, but since their employees are so involved in the decision-making process, their team has a lot of influence in their manager’s decision.

Employees are so heavily involved in the decision-making process because managers know it makes their team feel valued, boosts their morale, and forges a healthy, trusting relationship between the two. It also makes it easier for managers to convince their employees to buy into a team’s vision — after all, they’re executing a plan that they’ve created together.

Many employees like this leadership style because their managers trust them with a lot of responsibility and real work, which lets them use their skills to their full potential.

But when executed poorly, a democratic management style can be inefficient. Managers who keep mulling over a decision even after consulting their whole team about it can slow down progress. And if you want your employees to feel like they’re all leaders of your team, you need to make sure they’re helping you make progress. Or else they might start thinking you're just making empty promises.

Example of the Democratic Leadership Style in Action: Judy Vredenburgh

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Judy Vredenburgh is a democratic-style leader and President and CEO of Girls Inc., a nonprofit that inspires young women to be their best selves. Because this NGO relies on its board of directors, volunteers, and members to achieve its mission, it’s critical that she carries out her responsibilities in a way that is fair, equitable, and proves that the organization’s leadership and staff are good stewards of the donated resources that Girls Inc. receives.

3. Transformational Management Style

Transformational managers’ are innovators. They usually believe change and growth is the only way to stay ahead of the curve, so they push their employees past their comfort zone, making them realize they’re more capable than they originally thought. This motivates employees to keep raising the bar, leading to improved team performance.

Employees led by transformational managers are usually more dedicated and happy — their managers constantly challenge them and motivate them with the idea that they can reach their potential if they just keep pushing themselves. These managers are also right by their employees’ side, doing whatever they can to help them get better and succeed.

These teams are innovative, so they can adapt to drastic industry changes. But they can also risk moving too fast and spreading themselves thin. Constantly challenging the status quo is crucial for innovation and staying ahead of the curve, but, as a manager of people, it’s important to know how far you can push each of your employees before they start burning out.

Example of the Transformational Leadership Style in Action: Brian Halligan & Dharmesh Shah

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You know HubSpot as the powerhouse CRM tool that supports marketing, sales, service, and ops teams in scaling and enterprise businesses, but the company wasn’t always this way. In 2006, Brian Halligan and Dharmesh Shah identified an issue with the way companies were generating leads. Outbound marketing simply wasn’t creating remarkable customer experiences.

Rather than finding a new way to bombard people with advertisements, the two created a platform that would bring customers to the companies that had solutions to their problems. Thus, “inbound marketing” became a corporate war room name, thanks to Halligan’s and Shah’s transformational leadership approach.

4. Coaching Management Style

Just like a sports coach, a coaching manager strives to improve their employees’ long-term professional development. They have a passion for teaching and watching their employees grow. And they’re more patient with short-term failure, as long as the team learns and improves as a result.

Coaching managers motivate their employees with professional development opportunities, like a promotion or more responsibility — these rewards make employees hungry for knowledge, and their steady development improves the team’s performance.

By constantly teaching their employees new things and offering career opportunities, coaches can build strong bonds with their employees. But doing this could also create a cutthroat environment that’s toxic for their team's relations.

Leaders with a coaching style have two main focuses: overseeing employees’ individual development and bringing your team together. The best teams are the most united teams, and an employee experiences the most professional growth when both their coach and teammates invest in their development.

Example of the Coaching Leadership Style in Action: Bozoma Saint John

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When it comes to trailblazing a path for women of color to become leaders in the workplace, Bozoma Saint John truly shows up. As Netflix’s current CMO, she leverages her position as a tech executive to coach other women on their path toward professional success. Through authentic storytelling, Bozoma reaches her team and the greater tech industry with her visible and motivating leadership style.

4 Management Styles to Avoid Autocratic Servant Laissez-faire Transactional

1. Autocratic Management Style

Autocratic management is the most top-down approach to management — employees at the top of the hierarchy hold all the power, making decisions without collaborating or informing their subordinates. After the leader delegates action items, they expect immediate acceptance and execution from their subordinates, with no questions asked.

If one of their employees doesn’t follow orders, they’ll punish them by chewing them out or threatening their job. They’ll even publically humiliate them in front of their peers if they really want to make a statement to their team. Fear, guilt, and shame are an autocratic manager’s main weapons of motivation.

Autocratic managers are also the ultimate micromanagers — they police their employees every move to make sure they’re obedient, allowing little to no flexibility at work. Employees do what they’re told, and managers don’t want to hear their feedback. They see their conduct as a means to end for great financial success.

Teams and companies led by autocratic managers don’t usually reach great financial success because they can’t innovate. The same few minds call the shots which leads to groupthink and a stagnant ideation process. If they won’t let their employees, who have many different perspectives than them, share their new and possibly breakthrough ideas, then they’ll only leverage the same strategies that they’ve always been comfortable with.

The autocratic management style allows managers to make decisions extremely fast, but employees hate working under it. It’s also one of the most ineffective management styles: underdeveloped employees feel overwhelmed — they won’t get any help — and the most skilled employees can’t let their talents shine in such a rigid environment. Everyone’s professional growth is stunted.

Another problem with autocratic managers is that they don’t try to convince their employees to buy into their vision. Instead, they force them to do it. Even though coercion might work in the short-term, it won’t last in the long-term. No one likes to be controlled. And if people don’t know why they’re supporting the company’s vision, morale will plummet, leading to low-quality work and a high turnover rate.

The only time this management style is effective is when it’s temporary. For example, an organization might experience a crisis situation and needs to make important decisions — fast.

2. Servant Management Style

Servant managers put people first and tasks second. They prioritize their employees’ well-being over their team’s results, so they can foster a harmonious relationship with their employees and keep them as happy as possible. They do everything they can to support and encourage their team, and, in return, they expect their employees to be motivated to work hard.

But since servant managers don’t prioritize performance and avoid confronting their employees, even when they do a lackluster job, there’s no pressure to succeed. This can make employees complacent, leading to average or even sub-par work.

Servant managers also might spend too much time on team bonding rather than work, which could frustrate employees who are goal-oriented. They’ll feel like they can’t perform to their full potential because they have to spend a bunch of time doing trust falls.

3. Laissez-Faire Management Style

Laissez-faire managers monitor their team’s activities, but they’re completely hands-off — they expect their team to perform up to a certain level even though they don’t proactively help or check-in with their employees.

Employees led by laissez-faire managers hold all the decision-making authority, working on whatever they want with minimal to no intervention — which is a nice perk. They can also seek their manager’s guidance when they need help.

But most of the time, the team barely has any guidance or vision. Employees might feel pulled in every direction, so they can’t accomplish anything worthwhile. This is the least desirable and effective management style because, without any guidance or vision, most employees feel neglected.

4. Transactional Management Style

Transactional managers use incentives and rewards — like bonuses and stock options — to motivate their employees to carry out their commands. Their motto is “If you do this for me, I’ll do this for you.”

But psychological research tells us that extrinsic motivation, like financial rewards, wears off in the long-term and could even diminish your team’s intrinsic motivation to succeed at work.

After a while, rewarding intrinsically motivated employees with external incentives will trigger a self-perception loop. Employees will base their attitudes about their motivation at work off their behavior at work — making them think they were motivated to succeed because their manager rewarded them with some stock options and not because they had a passion for the team’s mission.

Intrinsic motivation is a stronger motivator than extrinsic motivation because the former is a better indicator for producing quality work, while the latter is a better indicator for producing a higher quantity of work.

Effective Management Styles for a Thriving Team

Management is one of the hardest jobs in the working world. There’s a reason why we’ve all had at least one terrible boss, but it doesn’t have to be this way. Now that you know the four leadership styles to adopt and which ones to avoid, you’ll be better equipped to lead your team through challenging and successful times.

Editor's note: This post was originally published in July 2018 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.

The Four Functions of Management (With Examples) – Zippia

Effectively managing a team is a multi-faceted role that requires leaders to fulfill a variety of functions.

In this article, we’ll explain the four functions of management and discuss tips to help you put them into practice.

Key Takeaways:

Over the years, experts have identified four main behaviors which are planning, organizing, leading, and controlling.

Understanding and mastering these four functions will allow you to lead teams that break records and stand out in the workplace.

Using the four functions will create stronger bonds between a manager and they employee and create an overall better work environment.

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The Four Functions of Management

It is typically understood that these functions happen in a step-by-step order. First, a manager plans a course of action and organizes the necessary reources. They then lead the project by providing roles and motivation for others. Finally, they manage the project as it proceeds and make adjustments as required.

Of course, for a manager handling multiple projects, it’s common for these functions to become tangled and not quite linear. That’s why it’s often good to step back and remember your primary managerial functions to make sure you’re contributing to your team’s success in the most effective way possible.

Here’s more detail on the four functions of management — planning, organizing, leading, and controlling:

Planning. Managers must navigate the decision-making process to help their team reach company goals. Effective planning involves a few important steps: Identify challenges. Managers need to be aware of the challenges facing their team or business and what potential solutions are available to them.

Forecast future business. To determine the proper solution to each challenge, managers must be able to forecast the future impact of each particular solution on the business.

Formulate objectives and deadlines. Once a solution to a problem is identified, a manager needs to create a game plan to apply it. This involves planning out individual steps and setting appropriate deadlines and time frames.

Reevaluation. Managers need to stay constantly alert to changing situations. If a plan requires adjustments or isn’t working at all, it’s up to managers to identify the proper direction to lead the team.

Maintain efficiency. Throughout the entire planning process, effective managers should also understand how to allocate resources and reduce waste efficiently. Organizing. To complete projects or meet any other company goals, managers must effectively organize physical, human, and financial resources. Doing so is often a fine balancing act, as any given team will only have a limited pool of available workers, funding, and other resources to accomplish their objectives. Some responsibilities of managers in regards to organizing resources include: Classifying activities

Assigning activities to individuals or groups

Creating responsibilities

Delegating authority Team leaders must also establish new positions that need to be filled, fill those positions, and effectively train workers to perform the tasks. Leading. Managers are responsible for motivating team members and providing the direction to accomplish a business’ goals and objectives. Effective leadership follows a few key principles: Communication. In order for a team to meet its goals, each member must understand what their responsibilities entail. It’s up to managers to communicate these ideas and ensure that everyone is on-board. Communication isn’t just about talking. Effective communicators know how to listen to questions and concerns. They practice self-awareness and empathy in order to choose a communication strategy that fits the recipient.

Motivation. Leaders are responsible for aligning the motivations of team members with the team’s overall goals. Set clear goals and reward employees who achieve or exceed expectations. Team members who show disregard for their work require corrective action, but not those who try but fail. Provide opportunities for growth and development. Tie the success of the team with that of the individual. Controlling. This function refers not just to controlling people, but total supervision or management of the team or business in general. Teams are not always immediately successful in tackling their challenges. It’s up to managers to identify what caused deviations from the goal and make appropriate changes. This may involve improving the performance of individuals responsible for particular problems, changing ineffective procedures, or adjusting the team’s strategy as a whole.

The four functions of management aren’t always mutually exclusive activities. Rather, they’re the collective of responsibilities that managers should make sure they’re fully satisfying when making any given decision.

Effectively practicing one function of management will often involve utilizing the other three as well.

For example, a manager can’t create a cohesive plan without understanding how to organize resources and delegate staff. The plan must necessarily involve how they intend to lead the team and how they’ll measure if goals have been met and control for contingencies.

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Tips for Practicing the Four Functions of Management

Whether you’re an engineer or marketing manager, the principles behind effective management remain the same.

Follow these tips to maximize your performance:

Planning tips Effective planners employ strategies to help them accurately identify important tasks and their priority levels and determine appropriate timelines to complete them: Carefully assess time frames. Before setting any concrete time frames for a major task, carefully evaluate whether the deadline is appropriate. Casually committing to unreasonable time frames can cause major problems for a project later down the line. If you later realize that a certain task requires more time than originally planned, then you may need to delay other dependent tasks as a result. This translates to a massive waste of resources in multiple areas. Some employees will be sitting idly, while others will be overworked and lose morale. Your team may suffer the consequences of delayed deadlines, and in extreme cases, entire projects will need to be abandoned.

Perform SWOT analysis. A SWOT analysis provides you with a comprehensive view of your team’s strengths, weaknesses, and potential risks. Understanding your company’s strengths allows you to choose the right strategies for capitalizing on short-term opportunities. Identifying weaknesses and risks are critical for improving them and setting your business on the right path for long-term growth. Organizing tips Effective resource coordination is a foundational requirement for any business or team’s future success. Disorganized managers result in employees being shuffled around and resource bottlenecks, which are both highly disruptive to any team’s goals. Define and classify activities. Before assigning a single employee, clearly define the goals and duties associated with each position. You don’t want to realize later on that although a certain employee’s job title matches the position, their experience doesn’t match what’s required in this specific case. Many companies also fail to recognize tasks that could be easily automated, which translates to employee hours constantly wasted.

Specify reporting status/breadth of power. Even if a team or company is filled with competent employees, it’s doomed to fail if there isn’t a coherent internal structure. Specify which roles report to which management positions, and determine the breadth of power that each supervisor holds in different departments.

Don’t be scared to alter your team’s structure. Many initially successful start-ups fail because they weren’t able to adjust to rapid growth. As long as you’ve closely analyzed the pros and cons, don’t be scared to make necessary drastic changes to your team’s internal structure. Leading tips Effective leadership isn’t hard science, but there are key principles that most great leaders put into practice. Create a shared vision. Align the success of the team with that of the individual. Although bonuses and financial incentives are great tools, they shouldn’t be the only motivators you employ. Try to provide training and developmental opportunities for your employees to list on their resumes and cover letters. Challenge them and make projects gratifying experiences to work through. Establish a positive team culture where employees support each other and celebrate their progress and victories.

Lead by example. Exemplify the qualities that you want your team to have. If team members see you tackling a difficult project with an obstacle head-on, they’ll feel compelled to put in the same amount of effort and do their part. If you foster a positive attitude, others will react accordingly and spread that mindset around the team.

Develop strong communication skills. You need to inspire employees so that they become self-motivating. Being a good listener and using empathy allows you to identify team members’ concerns and questions before they become problems. Managers are responsible for ensuring that all employees understand the team’s objectives. You shouldn’t just say them and assume that everyone is on board. Make sure that each employee knows what’s expected of them and adjust your communication methods to match the individual. With the rise of remote work and team communications moving to platforms such as Slack, you need to adjust and make sure you’re proficient with the necessary tools. Teams are often diverse in their personalities and backgrounds, meaning that miscommunication and conflicts will inevitably arise. You need to be able to adjudicate and resolve miscommunications in a way that’s perceived as fair by all.

Foster respect and trust. There are many ways to build respect and trust with your fellow team members. Rather than micromanage employees, monitor their performance. If a worker is performing poorly, then try and step in and assess how you can help them improve. If an employee is meeting performance standards, then micromanagement and constant supervision will only disrupt their activities. Team lunches can also be a great way to get to know your coworkers and build a cohesive team dynamic. Controlling tips Controlling is all about making sure that objectives are met and understanding how to make appropriate adjustments when issues arise. Set concrete quality standards. Set concrete standards so that you can actually determine if a particular goal has been met. This is especially important to do for project milestones. It’s bad if a team is behind schedule or underperforming, but downright disastrous if they don’t even realize it. Concrete standards allow you and supervisors under you to identify poor performance and respond accordingly.

Monitor, but don’t micromanage. You need to develop a strategy so that managers in each department can continually monitor workers’ work quality and performance. However, make sure that your method doesn’t micromanage and disrupt employee activities.

Prepare strategies for improving performance. You want to prepare methods for responding to poor performance and contingencies before they actually occur. This could come in the form of training programs or resources to help employees. It could also involve alternative business procedures and processes.

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The Four Functions of Management FAQ

What are examples of the four functions of management? Examples of the four functions of management include planning checkpoints into a project schedule to help your team hit the end deadline, assigning tasks to team members in accordance with their skills, leading by example by assigning yourself a task and completing it well, and readjusting the team’s workload as needed throughout the project. Incorporating checkpoints or mini-deadlines into a project to help ensure your team is going to hit their end goal on time is an example of the planning function of management. By slicing up the timeline into smaller, more manageable chunks, your team will (hopefully) be less likely to procrastinate, and you’ll be able to review their work and make adjustments along the way. In setting up these deadlines, you’ll be identifying challenges that your team may run into along the way and creating solutions to overcome, avoid, or minimize them. You’ll also be reevaluating the project’s performance as it moves along and ensuring it’s as efficient as possible, all of which are important steps in the planning function of management. Organizing is the second function of management, and a large part of this is assigning tasks to your team members according to their abilities. This requires knowing what needs to be done to finish a project and understanding what each of your team members brings to the table as far as strengths, weaknesses, available time, and the assumed time it will take to complete. The third function of management is leadership, and one of the most powerful forms of this is leading by example. Don’t just assign a bunch of tasks and then go hide in your office until the project’s done. Show your team that you’re invested in the project by taking on some tasks yourself. That doesn’t mean micromanaging or taking over someone else’s job, but you can take on appropriate tasks such as ensuring your team has all the resources they need when they need them, setting up clear communication channels so no one is confused or frustrated, and providing support with anything else you can, even if that’s buying everyone lunch during crunch time. Finally, being willing to readjust the workload as the project progresses is an example of the controlling function of management. You can’t just set a project in motion and walk away: You need to keep tabs on it and make adjustments as it progresses. This often means reassigning tasks as some turn out to be more time-consuming, challenging, or unproductive than expected. How do you describe the type of management activity with each function of management? You can describe the type of management activity with the planning function of management as looking ahead at the goals your team needs to reach and the challenges they might encounter along the way and then making a plan to get to those goals and conquer those challenges. For the organizing function of management, you can describe it as taking stock of and managing resources in a way that allows your team to reach their goals. These resources may be physical materials and finances, but they also may be people, which means you need to be able to assess each team member’s strengths and weaknesses and train them and assign them tasks accordingly. You can describe the leading function of management as directing and motivating your team members so that they can accomplish their goals. This involves communicating with them, motivating them, and providing them with opportunities to grow, as well as standing up for them, getting them the resources they need, and leading by example. As far as the controlling function of management, you can describe it as continuously staying involved with your team and their project’s progress to ensure they’re still on track for success. This usually also involves making adjustments to the project as it moves along, helping individuals improve their performances, or completely overhauling your team’s structure and strategy. What are the three levels of management and their functions? The three levels of management are administrative, executive, and supervisory, and their functions are to oversee the company’s direction, policies, and strategies, to ensure departments are functioning in accordance with that direction and those policies and strategies, and to oversee and direct the day-to-day activities of employees, respectively. The administrative level of management is also called the managerial or top level of management, and it comprises companies’ CEOs and boards of directors. These leaders are responsible for the big picture of the company: What its ultimate mission is and the widespread policies and practices that will allow it to get there. The executive or middle-level management’s job is to ensure that those policies and practices are successfully put into practice in their respective departments. These managers do more day-to-day than the administrative managers do, but they’re also in charge of the big-picture success of their departments, giving them a unique set of responsibilities. This level of management is made up of branch managers, department heads, and vice presidents, and it can often include multiple layers of managers. The third level of management is the supervisory level, also referred to as the operative or lower level of management. These managers work directly with employees to ensure their work is furthering goals and strategies put into place by middle- and upper-level managers. These managers have the most day-to-day responsibilities such as creating work schedules, assigning tasks, motivating employees, and handling workers’ mistakes or complaints. They’re the ones tasked with making sure the week’s work gets done correctly and on time so that the company can meet its overarching goals.

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Final Thoughts

Developing your leadership skills will lead to career success, but knowing how to make decisions and execute plans is only half the battle. Understanding the key functions of your role will help keep you on track and make you a more effective leader.

For managers looking to improve employee performance and engagement, taking the time to assess your own leadership style and identify areas for improvement will help make you a more effective leader. Whether it’s planning, organizing, leading, or controlling, every manager can take steps toward better adhering to the four functions of management.

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