WHAT IS MANAGEMENT

WHAT IS MANAGEMENT ?

 Art or Science ?

Management is both art and science. It is the art of making people more effective than they would have been without you. The science is in how you do that. There are four basic skills of management: planing, organizing, directing, and monitoring.

Make Them More Effective

Four workers can make 6 units in an eight-hour shift without a manager. If I hire you to manage them and they still make 6 units a day, what is the benefit to my business of having hired you? On the other hand, if they now make 8 units per day, you, the manager, have value

The same analogy applies to service, or retail, or teaching, or any other kind of work.

Can your group handle more customer calls with you than without? Sell higher value merchandise? Etc.

That is the value of management-making a group of individuals more effective

Basic Management Skills

Planning

Management starts with planning. Good management starts with good planning.

Without a plan you will never succeed. If you happen to make it to the goal, it will have been by luck or chance and is not repetable. Figure out what your goal is (or listen when your boss tells you). Then you chanefigure out the best way to get there. What resources do you have? What can you get? Compare strengths and weaknesses of individuals and other resources. Will putting four workers on a task that takes 14 hours cost less than renting a machine that can do the same task with one worker in 6 hours? If  you change the first shift from an 8 AM start to a 10 AM start , can they handle the early evening rush so you don’t have to hire an extra person for the second shift?

Organizing

Now that you have a plan, you have to make it happen. Is everything ready ahead of your group at the right time? Is your group prepared to do its part of the plan? Is the organization ready for what your group will deliver and when it will arrive?

Are the workers trained? Are they motivated? Do they have the equipment they need? Are these spare parts available for the equipment? Has purchasing ordered the material? Is it the right stuff? Will it get here on the appropriate schedule?

Check back to make to sure that everyone understands their role and the importance of their role to the overall success.

 

 

Directing

Tell people what they need to do. This part is like conducting an orchestra. Everyone in the orchestra has the music in front of them. They know which section is playing which piece and when. They know when to start, what to play, and when to stop again. That’s your job here. You’ve given all your musicians (workers) the sheet music  (the plan). You have the right number of musicians (workers) in each section (department), and you’ve arranged the sections on stage so the music will sound best (you have organized the work). Now you need only to start the team.

Monitoring

Now that you have everything moving, you have to keep an eye on things. Make sure everything is going according to the plan. When it isn’t going according to plan , you need to step in and adjust the plan, just as the orchestra conductor will adjust the tempo.

Problems will come up. Some will get sick. A part won’t be delivered on time. A key customer will go bankrupt. That is why you developed a contingency plan in the first place. You, as the manager, have to be always aware of what’s going on so you can make the adjustments required.