Managing is the art and craft of getting a team to work productively and consistently – and keeping it that way. This encompasses hiring, training, mentoring and firing, budgeting, planning, organizing, breaking down issues, building and utilizing management systems, judiciously designating assets and giving performance feedback. Managing is an essential component of leadership.
The role of managers wraps around a number of basic responsibilities that diversify into several other responsibilities as well. Let’s look at the four basic responsibilities/functions of managers.
- Planning: This is a significant responsibility of managers. They ought to understand or figure out what the organization’s long term and short term objectives are and how to achieve them. This is connected to all parts of the process and also a repetitive procedure, as such plans and objectives are subject to change based on internal and external factors. If you’re an entrepreneur who is the primary decision-maker of the organization, this essentially becomes your burden. However, if you have managers reporting to you, it is in your organization’s best interest to get them involved in the planning process and helping them develop the ability to plan. Always remember that if you fail to plan, then you plan to fail.
- Organizing: This is simply about achieving the optimum resource utilization. When organizing, a manager should look into the resources required to achieve the set goals, and their proper allocation. It is tied in with setting up the structure of the organization/team also, as aligning the Human Resources and their empowerment essential to the organization’s success. Imagine you are going to open a new outlet for your business. Then, ‘organizing’ includes allocating funds, obtaining the building space, selecting and assigning responsibilities to staff members, setting up the office facilities and so on.
- Leading: This refers executing the plan and marshalling the resources to accomplish the objectives of the project. In an organizational context, the ‘leading function’ includes numerous delicate skills like clear (and frequent) communication, motivating the team and conflict resolution. When leading, a manager should also be able to empower his / her subordinates, which enables them to act autonomously. Let’s go back to the new outlet example above. If you are appointing a store manager to look after its operation, you should clearly communicate his / her responsibilities and the targets set. Further, he/she should be given authority to take timely decisions on his / her own, as consulting you all the time could be practically impossible.
- Controlling: Controlling is the evaluation of actual results compared to the set goals, thereby taking corrective actions to help the organization navigate its course. This does not mean merely discouraging departures from the set plan, or cost reduction or management, as the term suggests. The controlling function could entail using judgment to allow deviations from plans, or tolerating changes in budgets and costs, as you steer the organization to its ultimate goals. In our outlet example, if you expect a daily average net profit of Rs.5,000.00 but generate only Rs. 2,000.00 on average over the first three months, you might need to reconsider your promotional activities. Similarly, if your electricity bill is excessively high, you could replace the lighting with energy-efficient fixtures (CFL, LED etc.). This is why controlling should be a continuous process, as it may be a little too late if you wait till the end of the year to take action on the things that went wrong. It will be beneficial for you to read more on the PDCA (Plan, Do, Check, Action) Cycle.
As you can see, the managers’ functions are many and varied. A manager’s role feels a great deal like a “plate spinner” at a circus. We have listed down a set of typical responsibilities of a Manager below (depending on the organization and the managerial role, these can vary).
- Recruiting new employees
- Training new employees
- Coachingthe existing employees
- Supporting decision-making and problem resolution
- Monitoring performance and taking steps to strengthen them
- Controlling the budget
- Conducting timely performance evaluations
- Planning and setting goals of a company for future
- Reporting to senior management
The best managers comprehend that their jobs are about their organizations and their performance, and not about themselves. They endeavor to build up the skills of their teams and appreciate the triumphs of their colleagues. So, are YOU the best manager you can be?
