Management practices: What you need to know

“The key to successful leadership today is influence not authority.” – Kenneth Blanchard

Management styles vary from place to place, from person to person and from organisation to organisation. But what is it that is key in management for success? What is it that should be the common recipe for outstanding results? Let’s explore!!

What management is:

It is the coordination and administration of tasks to achieve a goal. Such administration activities include setting the organization's strategy and coordinating the efforts of staff to accomplish these objectives through the application of available resources. In other words, management is overseeing everything that we consider to be part of a particular organisation. I would define management as simply taking responsibility for the outcome an organisation is to produce as their end result. Management in simple terms is the organisation’s central processing unit

Management Practices

These are the working methods and innovations that managers use to improve the effectiveness of work systems. Management is associated with various practices that contribute to the whole structure of the organisation and the end products each organisation produces. In this piece I will consider what best managers can do that benefits them and their respective organisation.

The 5 keys

Planning

“Planning is bringing the future into the present so that you can do something about it now.” ― Alan Lakein. Management has to see the end before the start. You wouldn’t join someone on a journey without a destination just like the same way you wouldn’t board a bus without a destination. Good management is associated with good planning. It doesn’t matter its management at what level, every manager is associated with planning. In this way every manager starts to see what kind of people to recruit for their business journey and who to empower. This gives insight even to the subordinates of what way they are heading and what they should give in for their specific roles.

Communication

Every manager as the bearer of an organisation’s vision must be able to communicate that vision to the subordinates. Management should be able to communicate throughout all organisational levels in a way that the subordinates will welcome with a sense of willingness, zeal and motivation.

Engage Workers

The term Employee Engagement was coined by William Kahn, Professor of Organizational Behaviour at Boston University. In his 1990 paper Psychological Conditions of Personal Engagement and Disengagement at Work he defined engagement as an employee’s ability to harness their “full self” at work.

According to Peakon employee survey data as of January 2020, 41% of employees globally are engaged. 38% of employees are disengaged, and 21% of employees are actively disengaged. This is where every manager should be able to come in and utilise their unique set of abilities in building teams of actively engaged members. Unengaged workers just can’t apply themselves fully at their work places.

Setting and Demanding Realistic Goals

This should always be associated with honesty and realism. Who would cruise in a boat on land? Every goal that a manager is to set should be a realistic goal. That means one that is achievable. Reviewing goals is also key in this practise. We shouldn’t just sleep because we have achieved our initial set target. Goals can be reviewed!

Reward Effort

Who really likes their work to go unrecognized? Recognition of effort and achievement – thanks for a job well done – makes employees feel valued when they achieve their

goals or even for a step towards their goals. To some managers it seems like a needless thing. Some managers might even feel that being too "touchy-feely" undermines their authority. On the contrary, reward motivates people to achieve more and helps to build esteem and company loyalty.

2s for Practicing

Forecasting and Benchmarking

Forecasting is planning with predictive elements for the future using historical data. This is key as it can inform management on how to allocate necessary resources in order not to let down certain individuals or departments.

Benchmarking on the other hand involves comparing achievements to a certain standard. This allows measurement of progress that has been achieved.

Performance Monitoring and Key Performance Indicators

At this point there is no doubt that management has to be responsible for monitoring individuals they might have delegated certain tasks to. Surely you wouldn’t want the shock of learning your subordinates are way behind where you expect them to be at a certain time. That means from time to time it should be management’s mandate to make follow up on their subordinates.

Key performance indicators setting is the most effective way of monitoring all the aspects of your business organization. You can set up KPIs for any aspect of the business and start monitoring the progress of the respective aspects.

What to do

In conclusion I will press that managing is taking responsibility for whatever outcome that we get in the processes we implement as an organisation. It is then key that the management learn how to implement the best practises in their tenure of management if they are to succeed. It’s a fact that ignorance is not an excuse and every manager ought to know what to do best right. This means working through their team to achieve what they want.

Like John Maxwell says, “A leader is one who knows the way, goes the way and shows the way.”

Blessmore Ndemo is a data analyst at Industrial Psychology Consultants (Pvt) Ltd, a management and human resources consulting firm.

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