What is management? Many people consider management as both art and science. Management is the art of helping people to be more effective in what they are doing to achieve the corporate objectives. Management is also the science of achieving corporate objectives. The principles of management are summarized in four words: plan, organize, execute, and monitor. Thus the function of management is the ensure the smooth operations of the whole organization to achieve the companies vision, mission, and goal.

Management think about effectiveness, efficiency, innovation, and productivity. To be effective, the company must focus on their core competencies to deliver high value products and services which the customers wants. It can be said as winning through competitive strategies. To be efficient, management must reduce all kinds of waste, focusing to use the scarce resources in the most efficient manner, and seeing time as the greatest value of all. To be innovative, management must taps the unique and personal skills of their employees because by aggregating the unique potentials of the employees for the achievement of companies strategic mission, the company will reap create huge progress. To be productive means that the company must create focus to create products and services which are in high demands by the markets and then market them successfully.

Management can be a complex science that combine many discipline of knowledge and understanding such as psychology, leadership, mathematic, time management, projects management, team building, achievement motivational, languages, marketing, computer science, culture, and many others. Management is dealing both with people and things. Therefore, to simplify the complex matter, here are basic management skills that you need to master:

Planning

Planning is crucial because it is through planning that time is used in the most effective, efficient, and productive ways to achieve the companies vision, mission, and objectives. Planning should be differentiated from mere plan. Planning is about how the actions are taken to ensure the achievement of objectives, it as about doing thing in strategic ways to ensure effectiveness. The importance of planning is the ensure that every actions which are taken are toward the achievement of corporate objectives, not against it. It is reasonable that you keep the track records of what you do to ensure that you are not heading toward the wrong direction.

In planning, you think logically to go where you want, to get to your destination in the best way possible. You figure out about how you can use the available resources in the most effective ways possible. You focus on using your strengths and eliminate or compensate the weaknesses. You think about how to hire a person of integrity and skillful to get the jobs done. You use forecasting to think about what will the future be like if execute this plan or that plan. You evaluate different plans and choose the best one available and then execute them quickly and effectively. You also figure out the worst possible scenario and consider what will work best in your situation and what will happen if it doesn’t work as planned.

Tip: It’s not about just plan, it about “action plan”, it’s the planning of your actions that make huge differences.

Organizing

You want to make things happen. You don’t want to stay where you are. That’s why you must organize all the available resources in the most intelligent manner. You recruit the right people, put them in the right place, and give them the rights jobs. You get things done through people. You both achieve the corporate objectives and help the individual to realize their full potential within the company. You create the winning team and get the jobs done in the most accurate timing. You directs your teams the get the highest value jobs done because you know that the most precious resources of all is time.

You equips the workers to do the best in their job. You motivate them through various incentive. You give the equipments needed to get the jobs done. You ensure that the company run smoothly in creating products and services that best serve the customers. You balance the short and long terms achievements of goals. You create appropriate schedule of execution of plan to ensure systematic progress of your company. You delegate what can be delegate so that you can focus on your most important jobs at hand.

You make sure that everything are executed based on plan. You check everything to ensure progress and success. You understand your role and your employees understand their role. You orchestrate the people and jobs between roles and goals. You make sure that everyone in the company understand their roles and goals and motivate them to effectively get the jobs done. Use use progress chards to make sure that everything work toward the achievements of company’s objectives.

Directing

Now your goal is to make sure that everything work well as planned and progress are made. You are conducting an orchestra. Everyone must play their parts so that the music will sound great. Everyone know which parts of music they must play during the hold sessions of the orchestra. You are the conductor that give codes about when to start and when to stop certain parts of the music. The conductor ensure that each musician plays their part well based on the music sheets.

You’ve given the music sheet to play which is the plan, the musicians to play the music which are the employees, the section which are the department within your company, and you’ve organized each section so that everyone will work perfectly on the music stage. Now what you need to do is to stand in the podium with your baton and instructed each part to play their distinct instruments based on the music sheet.

Monitoring.

Managing people is not easy. People are not robot. Psychological factors play a great deal. That’s why learning and applying the theory of psychology can give you great benefits in your managerial jobs.

You need to keep an eye on how things are get done and make sure that everything works toward the achievement of corporate vision, mission and goals. When things don’t work as plan you step in and make some adjustment. You solve problems that come along the way. You create an atmosphere that motivate people to do their best. You streamline the process to ensure that everything will work out as planned. You develop a contingency plan to ensure that if one thing does work out, you have the alternative to work it out so that your long term objective still can be achieved. You make all the adjustments required. When something is out sync, you redirect the organization and reorganize the resources so that it will continue making progress. You continue monitor the change to ensure the achievement of both short terms and long terms goal.

Managing people and resources toward the achievement of both corporate and individual objective is not something easy yet it is very rewarding experiences. Remember that managerial skills, abilities, and competencies are something that can be studied, applied, and improved.

By Martin W. All Rights Reserved.

Leading and Managing People at Workplace