The essence of management in just a few steps

Manager, at last...

The long awaited event you’ve been dreaming about has finally turned into reality. For the first time, you have been appointed manager. You called your mother, father, grandmother and all the relevant relatives, bursting with excitement over the phone, joyful and triumphant, feeling like you won an Oscar. You have updated your LinkedIn, Facebook, Tweeter and Instagram profiles, in random order, so your friends have been informed about your remarkable accomplishments. You have made great efforts to make sure that especially those unbearable, horrid high school colleagues which always looked more promising than yourself and made you often feel inferior, are now aware they were so wrong about you. You take a deep breath and smile. You feel someone up there, loves you.

Indeed, someone up there, in the hierarchy, loves you… or at least, likes you enough to offer you the position of your dreams. That could make you instantly produce unhealthy amounts of gratitude hormone and inspire you to pledge full allegiance to your benefactor, something which is…perfectly fine. After all, gratitude is a natural and desirable reaction to anyone and anything doing something good for us. But while soaking in gratitude and euphoria there is something you already must decide upon: Do you want to be a good manager, or you want to be the extension of your hiring manager in all but name? Rather often, these two options do not coincide.

But a good manager or just another adventurer?

Rivers of ink have been spilled, fueling the debate about what makes good management: Is it a science, is it art, is it luck? Well, the answer let me tell you, is way simpler than that: It is a method… a simple, decisive method. Like all methods, it requires some knowledge and strong discipline but undoubtedly no other parameters you shouldn’t be able to control… unless, of course, your incursion within your freshly acquired position is nothing more than an accident. In this case, don’t be too harsh on yourself. About 80% of all the managers around the globe are at least partially incompetent so you will find yourself in very select company.

A good team lead, department head or top manager must encompass two distinctive personalities or sides of the same coin: the manager and the leader. The manager is the technical mind handling the technical aspects: objectives settings, strategies, planning, and prioritization - in one word, "what should be done". The leader is responsible for developing and engaging the human resources that will make it possible for the manager’s ideas to come to fruition. If the leader does his job properly the answer to the question "how it should be done" is also provided.

THE METHOD

The Managerial side (the external factors)

Step 1: Understand the organization:

No matter if you were already part of the organization at the time of your professional upgrade but especially if you were not, you must accustom yourself with the business model of the company. You must understand who the final customer is, what the product offered by the company is and how this product is created. You don’t need to go into excruciating details but don’t be too superficial either. As a minimum, you should know what the departments on the product’s critical path are and, as a bonus, you might take a look at the support functions as well. You can start by going through the Organizational Chart and continuing afterwards with digging as far as necessary until you feel you have figured out what it’s all about. Very often, companies provide this kind of overview to the new employees although most often, insufficient. Understanding the organization as a whole is paramount in finding out how your department is coupled with the rest of the enterprise and what role it plays in the big picture. Especially in larger corporation most managers fail, or perhaps, don’t care to understand what is happening around their department. This leads to a plethora of negative effects, out of which “silo building” is the most common one.

Step 2. Understand the organization’s strategy:

Once the organization’s purpose and basic functioning is assimilated, the next step is to understand the firm’s strategies. I am using the plural because there is not one single strategic stream we can talk about, the larger the firms are. The global strategy is like a tree and the branches are all the composing strategies. Resume yourself to the main branches and to the branch connected to your department. There is no need to get too much into details but don’t stop until you have figured out how your team contributes to the company’s value proposition and how this value is delivered.

These strategies are normally transmitted downstream by higher management but I have encountered plenty of situations when this communication was not in place leaving plenty of departments hovering around uncoordinated, like some debris in outer space. Try to avoid becoming that department by persistently asking your higher management what is the strategy you and your team should contribute to. If you don’t receive a fair answer then congratulations: you are part of an immature organization composed of at least some managers who never had the chance to read the article you are reading right now.

Step 3. Understand the role played by your department:

This one is pretty straight forward. You simply must know, down to the tiniest detail what outputs your team should feed into the organizational value stream. If the department is already established the list of deliverables should be already in place but its content may vary due to specific organizational transformations. It is therefore recommendable to keep your mind open and adaptable to whatever fluid requirements are placed onto your department.

The Leadership side (the internal factors)

Step 1. Understand your team’s competences:

Especially after being appointed in a managerial role you might have a pretty good opinion about yourself. You might think you are somehow special and able to achieve great professional deeds on your own. Hold your horses! Before going too far with the self-gratification here is a reality check. You are nothing more than the sum of the competences and drive of the people you lead. Lead them wisely and you will be great. Otherwise… not so much.

Once it is crystal clear what your department’s deliverables are, the next step is to figure out if your team deposits the capabilities required for fulfilling its current duties. This requires a two-step assessment. First, you must uncover what your department can deliver as a whole (processes and tools) and secondly what are the competences of the individuals in your team that can contribute to the creation of future processes and execution of existing ones.

When the department’s deliverables are evaluated two angles must be considered:

· To what extent are the current deliverables (processes) sufficient for fulfilling the organizational expectations based on the analysis of the existing branch strategy

· To what extent new processes (deliverables) must be developed in order to adapt to evolving organizational demands

When people’s competences are analyzed two criteria must be evaluated:

· To what extent your team members have the ability to implement the current processes

· To what extent your team members have the ability to develop new tools and processes

It might be that the obligations of the department are extremely operational and that not much development is embedded in its jobs description but most of the time a certain degree of adaptability is expected from any cell in the organizational body.

Analyzing your team members’ competences is the second most important aspect of a manager’s work, importance only surpassed by the enthusiasm with which this obligation is overlooked. Most managers don’t know much about what the people they lead are capable of or what they could do if proper training was offered. Theirs perception is limited to what is obvious, to the tip of the iceberg while most of the potential is unknown. Your people’s abilities are the building blocks for anything you are trying to build so the second biggest mistake you could ever make as a manager is ignore those skills. The more competences you are aware of the more sophisticated processes and tools you can develop and ultimately, the better you can serve the organization.

Competence management is a complex subject in itself, so it wouldn’t help much diving into details but, very briefly, you must have a table systematically recording your team’s manifested and potential capabilities. Subsequently you must constantly keep assessing in what ways these skills can be employed in the service of the organization. Sometimes you will have to push your people through certain trainings to put them to the best use, other times their unknown experiences unaltered could offer you the perfect solution to a critical challenge.

Unveiling the hidden talents of your team is, most likely, not something that will happen naturally. You will have to carry on some detective work and investigate profoundly. Don’t hesitate though. The pay-offs can be remarkable. Once you extracted the knowledge about the latent and manifested abilities, skills and competences of your team, you should compare them to the competences needed in order to fulfill the department role. The gap that may ensue can be covered in two ways: hiring new people or training the existing ones. The best choice depends on a lot of particularities but as a rule of thumb I must emphasize the importance of training if any of the team abilities are to be transformed into useful competences. Again, I can’t stress this enough: Make sure, before anything else, that your people are properly trained to do the job that is expected from them. This is perhaps the second biggest mistake many companies make (together with the previously mentioned ones): they under-train their people. Very often employees are left to figure themselves what they can do in order to achieve the goals formulated at the top. Under these circumstances, even the most suited candidates who could do miracles under the right circumstances will be a mediocre, underperforming pawn.

Step 2. Harness your team’s motivation:

If the competences are the building blocks for everything you are trying to achieve the motivation represents the mortar. In fact, the most important parameter to influence your team’s performance is motivation, even more important than the competences aspect. The relationship between competences and motivation is the same as the relationship between the engine and the fuel in a road vehicle, respectively. One might have the best V12 turbo charged engine (competences) in the world but without fuel (motivation) it won’t move. And another one might have a sub-mediocre 300 cc engine strong enough to power a lawn moaner but with enough fuel (motivation) will make it further, all the drawbacks considered. It would make absolutely no sense to have the best competences in your team if the bearers of these competences lack the drive to use them. Of course we should not fall in the other extreme and dilute the importance of hard skills. A high performing team will need plenty of both but in the constellation formed by competences and motivation the latter one shines brighter.

The biggest mistake a leader can make is to leave the motivation of its people up tofate, something that is ridiculously common. We can’t even talk about leadership without the intent and ability to motivate people. I would go as far as saying that leaders should be called motivators, instead. That would make it easier for them to figure out what they should be really focused on. Being a motivator doesn’t require any wizardry or innate skills of a mystical nature. It only demands focus and a structured approach towards this matter.

How it’s done?

The purpose of motivation management is to keep people in that motivational span that will provide best long term performance. This is an important aspect to mention since contrary to the common believe, being over motivated, for too long, might eventually prove counterproductive.

· Establish periodic communication sessions with each individual in your team:

The famous 1 on 1 must not, under any circumstances, miss from your managerial calendar, no matter how much everything else might be burning up around. You must develop the meeting routine which will convince your employees that no matter what, you want to know what is in their minds and that their opinions and problems matter to you.

· Establish close communication with each individual in your team:

If when dealing with competences management, intimacy is less of an issue (people are more inclined to tell you what they can do than what they feel), when dealing with motivation management it is paramount to develop deep honest communication. You must get to the point where your subordinates trust you enough to tell how and what they really feel. Honesty was always and still is a tremendous challenge in hierarchic organizations where the natural tendency is to tell your bosses what you think they would like to hear. Don’t let that happen or the only honest discussion will take place when you are being informed by your team members that they are about to quit and move to another position.

· Record and monitor the motivation level of your team members:

After each discussion with your team members you must extract and record their state of mind, preferably in written form. As an alternative, you may use periodic surveys where you address the issue of motivation but there is a risk they may become too mechanic after a while and lose their authenticity. Direct communication is always advisable. There are multiple types of motivations out there (internal or external) and it may get confusing when one subject will exhibit a mix of motivations some positive and some negative. Relax! Use open ended questions, close ended questions and ask the same question multiple times if necessary, but don’t give up until you found the right picture for the frame. You must get to the point where you know most of the motivating and de-motivating factors for your team members. This will allow you not only to react to the current state of affairs but also to predict fluctuations within your people’s state of mind. Motivation level may vary consistently so don’t wait more than two months before updating these data. The sooner you detect a “motivation decline” in progress the cheaper and more effective are the corrective actions you can employ.

Here’s an example supporting the above. After a tete-a-tete with one of your team members you find out that your subordinate is very happy with the salary level, loves the team, feels a bit overloaded with work, is disillusioned about the career prospects because he/she is not employed in his/her dream job, but is somehow excited to learn new things. What would be his/her overall status, should you take any measures in order to eliminate any de-motivators and how many resources should you spend in the process?

The complete analysis will hopefully be presented in a future article since it requires extensive attention but as a rule of thumb you should prioritize those motivations who could affect directly the person’s engagement and long term fulfillment. For instance, it might be that someone is fully motivated at 6 out of 7 chapters but it is the seventh chapter that impacts most significantly the level of engagement or fulfillment.

Step 3. Maintain the overview

Once it is clear enough what is the competence level of your team members together with the status of their motivation you may use the below graph to record the current state of affairs. Putting people in boxes is usually not a smart idea but, especially if you are heading a larger team, it might come in handy to have this quick overview. Keep your perception fluid and be ready to dramatically change one’s positioning in the graph if new information pops up. In the end, no matter where your people will land in the overview, remember that you are not there to punish them but to help them reach their potential. Your goal should obviously be to have your team inhabiting the first quadrant. Letting someone go (unless they want to) is the absolute last resort and it is acceptable only when all the meaningful attempts, made towards raising the competence level or motivation, have failed.

Performance is the ability of a group to efficiently achieve the designated objectives and depends mainly on two factors: competences and motivations. When these prerequisites are in place success is a certainty.

To conclude: As a manager, you are there to reach the goals of the organization which hired you and as a leader for your people, to guide, train and motivate. The two roles are inseparable in the equation of success. If you follow the method presented before you simply can't fail as a manager although there are some smaller relevant aspects which have not been mentioned in the article and that might further increase your managerial skills, albeit not too much.

Disclaimer: In the complex struggle for power and control eroding the corporations, very often, decisions are made in spite of common sense and too often, the best interest of the individual prevails over the best interest of the group. The method presented before will not guarantee personal success, only the success of the organization/department you're in charge of. It might be that your manager will fail to understand your vision, if short term goals are filling his agenda, and eventually find your position redundant. Doing the right thing is most often not what is right for you.

“The Essence of Management is to Make Knowledge Productive”. Peter Drucker

Is your QMS delivering Value to your Organisation?

A top-notch quality management system (QMS) is a powerful and necessary tool. The most effective quality control managers leverage their QMS's to increase product quality, optimise manufacturing processes, reduce costs and exceed business standards. So, how can you improve your QMS?

Harness the Power of Automation

The old saying, “work smarter, not harder” definitely applies here. Traditional paper-based QMS's are hard work to maintain and require a lot of manual updating. Attempting to analyse any of the data collected in these systems is even more of a time suck. For this reason, leading manufacturers are investing in automated QMS's. Modern QMS's provide automated version control and a central data repository. That way, you never have to guess which is the updated document, and you never have to go hunting in multiple places for a particular piece of information. Talk about increasing efficiency!

Integrate QC with Other Management Processes

Quality control should never be a “lone ranger.” Instead, QC should harmonize with other areas of your business strategy–from sourcing and design up through manufacturing, distribution, and service. Online solutions, like iMPi team-page, integrate key data sources and systems to develop closed-loop quality processes, or feedback loops, between functional areas. These closed-loop processes facilitate improvements earlier in the value chain, helping to continuously correct and prevent quality issues while driving costs down.

Continuously Validate Your Systems

Continually striving for excellence is a necessary strategy for becoming a leader in your niche of manufacturing. This same principle applies to your QMS. To help manufacturers achieve that aim (and to protect consumers), the market requires manufacturers in highly regulated industries to update validate) their QMS to stay in line with current regulations. Modern QMS's have continuous validation built into the system. These types of systems are ideal because they save organisations from the incredible headache of updating the system manually.

Traditional QMS's can be counterproductive to a manufacturer’s goal of continuous improvement. On the other hand, a modern QMS can lower your cost of quality by eliminating unnecessary expenses due to human error, undiagnosed issues and communication gaps. The best and brightest quality managers are leveraging the latest IT-based QMS technology. They’re not just looking to bridge gaps in their system today; they’re protecting their leadership position in the marketplace and setting themselves up for greater success.

Is your QMS facilitating your success or hindering it? If your company is ready to consider a next-generation solution to replace costly and error-prone QMS systems of the past, please phone me on +27 82 779 3500, or email me at fabio@impi.solutions to set up a short information sharing session.

Regards,

Fabio Grendele

What is considered the essence of a Manager?

Management is a systematic professional activity that creates order in the operations of an entity. To have effective and efficient operations, you require resources (both human and material), infrastructure, assets, information, and systems. All these require proper organization and utilization to successfully achieve your plan. What is considered the essence of a Manager?

The professional responsible for the systematic operations of an entity is known as a manager. They are responsible for planning, decision-making, organizing, leading, motivating, and controlling activities. As a result, they should possess relevant skills, knowledge, and attributes to undertake these activities. Let’s review this management role and establish its significance in operations.

Qualities of a Manager

Integrity

A manager should practice honesty in all activities and interactions, whether at a personal or professional level. He should follow and promote the highest level of ethical and professional standards in their environment. This will build trust with other people, and he will get unwavering support in the community or organization. He should avoid situations that compromise his character and public image. Finally, he should ensure consistency in behavior, decisions, and actions.

Transparent

Jeff Bezos Career Advice Please enable JavaScript Jeff Bezos Career Advice

A manager should practice open communication. This implies that decisions and actions should be conveyed in a timely and clear manner. He should ensure that all relevant parties know and understand the reasons behind his decisions and actions. This also involves encouraging the participation and contribution from relevant stakeholders to develop a sense of ownership among them. A manager should not only explain their perspective but also remain available for clarifications and guidance.

Accountable

Managers should take responsibility for their decisions and actions. Once a manager selects a certain course of action, he should remain committed to it until completion. He should remain consistent in the methods and approaches related to this course of action. He should remain obligated to the activities and parties surrounding the decision. Finally, he should take ownership of the process as it prospers and even in adversity.

Decisive

A manager should be able to make appropriate decisions in the shortest time possible when faced with alternatives. He should be able to distinguish between the most important and urgent in a list of decisions. His decisions should eliminate any controversies or ambiguity concerning issues. They bring finality and an end to discussions or debates. These decisions form part of the action plan to be developed and implemented. A manager’s decision is consistent and unrelenting.

Organized

A manager should create order in their environment for the smooth flow of operations. He should develop and implement policies and procedures that enhance activities around them. He should develop and implement structures and systems that achieve results and boost performance. He should develop and implement rules and regulations that preserve order and harmonious interactions. He should have checks and balances to guarantee adherence to the prescribed methodologies and ideologies.

Competent

A manager should possess relevant skills and knowledge to carry out his duties. He should perform his duties more efficiently and effectively when he has relevant abilities and qualifications. With his mastery of the skills, work is completed in the shortest time possible and expected results. This also improves the manager’s problem-solving skills, and he can resolve challenges faster than others. This reduces work-related risks and the impact they can have on operations and people.

Focused

A manager should direct his attention to the activities and people around him. He should know every detail related to systems and processes. He should predict the outcomes of decisions and actions to a certain extent by gathering adequate information concerning the issues. He should avoid being easily distracted and diverted from his plans. He should also analyze the cost and benefit of remaining and getting out of his initial plan.

Confidential

A manager should maintain secrecy where and when it matters. He should not divulge critical and sensitive information to third parties unless they are authorized to do so. To minimize breach cases, he should develop and implement policies and procedures to govern activities and people. This will help him remain professional in all activities and interactions. He should also introduce checks and balances for handling and storing sensitive information.

Confidence

A manager should exude power and authority while performing his duties. This builds trust with other parties he may be interacting with. It portrays him as competent and resilient in his environment. He will command influence in his environment due to this positive image and outlook that he possesses. This will help in securing opportunities for self-actualization and the implementation of plans.

Reliable

A manager should be perceived as dependable. Someone people can count on during difficulties. He should be easily accessible for consultations. He should be known for his ability to deliver with or without adversity. He should keep his word once he assures people of a certain outcome. He should also take responsibility when faced with setbacks or failures.

Functions of a Manager

Planning

This refers to forecasting and predicting future requirements for the entity. This involves establishing the current needs and future demands. It is taking stock or inventory of where the entity is right now and where it needs to be in the future. This requires identifying activities and allocating resources to undertake them. The planning steps include identifying needs, establishing goals, creating strategies, selecting the best option, implementing the plan, and following up.

Decision Making

This refers to developing options related to a certain issue and selecting the best option out of them to resolve the issue. It involves stating the problem, identifying various alternatives, reviewing the pros and cons of all the alternatives, selecting the best alternative, executing the alternative, and making periodic evaluations. To make the right decision, he must have all the relevant facts at his disposal. This will prevent making errors that can create additional problems or complicate the issues. On many occasions, decision-making will prove difficult since information is lacking, giving the managerless options to select from. This creates a serious risk in the operations of the entity.

Organizing

This refers to creating a structure or system to perform operations more efficiently and effectively. It involves the grouping of duties and activities into relevant categories for achieving your plans. These categories create a hierarchy of responsibilities to facilitate the flow of power and authority. The steps required in organizing include:

Identifying the work.

Grouping work.

Establishing a hierarchy.

Authority delegation.

Coordination of the various components that have been created.

There should be clear communication to the officeholders concerning their created roles and responsibilities. They also need to know and understand their significance in the entire structure.

Leading

This refers to taking the initiative and guiding others towards a given goal or destination. It is having influence over others and using it to activate their performance. The aim is to achieve a certain set of objectives or to implement a course of action. A leader must align people to goals and objectives. He must create awareness and ensure they have a proper understanding of the plans. Third, he must assign the functions about the desired plans and outcomes. Finally, he must empower them with the information and resources required to attain the agreed-upon goals.

Motivating

This refers to maintaining the morale of others. It is giving them a better perspective of the future and reducing the level of apathy. It involves raising the self-esteem of the people to improve their performance and productivity. It is creating the desire within people to achieve a certain set of goals and objectives. It energizes teams with positive affirmation so that they are more integrated and focused on the plans.

Controlling

This refers to creating and implementing checks and balances to ensure that all processes and activities are followed. It involves setting standards and ensuring that everyone adheres to them to reduce conflicts and mistakes. It enhances integration and harmonious interaction between people. It enhances compliance management within organizations, thereby reducing business and operational risks. This protects the entity from litigation cases and insurance claims. It enhances law and order in the organization.

Conclusion

Management is a complex process in the community or organization. It requires adequate skills, knowledge, and experience. As a result, only qualified people can undertake this role successfully. When discussing “the essence of a manager,” we aim to look at the most vital qualities or characteristics the officeholder should possess. These essential qualities include integrity, transparency, accountability, decisiveness, organization, competency, focus, confidentiality, confidence, and reliability. Managers are critical in an entity’s operations since they are responsible for various functions such as planning, decision making, organizing, leading, motivating, and controlling operations. These roles and responsibilities assist the organization in achieving its goals, objectives, and plans.

Frequently Asked Questions

What does the term “essence” mean?

It is defined as the essential, vital aspects of something or someone.

What are the FIVE qualities of a manager?

They are integrity, transparency, accountability, decisiveness, and organization.

What are the functions of a manager?

They include planning, decision-making, organizing, leading, motivating, and controlling operations.