The field of management is tricky to pin down since effective managers are evaluated based not just on their own efforts, but on the efforts of the team they oversee. There are therefore innumerable variables, some more useful than others, which come into play in determining good versus bad management styles. If you break the job of a manager down into its essential components, the key question you need to ask yourself is this:
What unique and measurable effect do I effect do I have on the function of my team?
Depending on the type of work you’re managing, there are several ways to answer this. If you’re overseeing a production team that produces a certain amount of units of a product in a given period of time, your team should produce more units under your direction than it would otherwise. If you’re managing a sales team, the sales rate should be measurably augmented under your direction. If you’re managing a customer service team, the level of satisfied customers should be increased. The important thing is that you pick a metric and use that as your benchmark in evaluating your managerial effectiveness.
Pick at least one managerial metric and find a way to measure and track your achievement of that metric.
Bear in mind that whoever hired you to do this job is likely tracking your performance along with a number of metrics. Some of these will be things you can’t directly control. Try not to focus too hard on abstract statistics like overall employee attrition rates and the like. While your performance certainly has a role to play in affecting these statistics, there are too many other variables which also have an effect (HR policies, the overall economic climate, etc . . .). Basing your performance on larger trends can lead to undue self-criticism in negative circumstances, as well as unearned self-congratulation in negative. You don’t want to fall into the slough of despond or rest on your laurels. Remain goal-directed. Keep continue Website Structure Optimization of SEO
Focus on Small-Scale Metrics You Can Easily Influence
Look for problems you can directly control and institute policies to address them. Monitoring your employees’ productivity rates on a daily and weekly basis falls under this heading, as does watch the amount of sick and personal days taken. If your sales numbers aren’t up to snuff, create a short-term metric to evaluate your efforts to improve them. In a nutshell, focus as closely as possible on issues in which your influence is the primary determinant. Use larger statistics to determine which of these issues is most important, but judge your success on the smaller scale.
Blend the science of good planning with the art of personal involvement
Bad Management Model A:
There are two ways of quickly becoming an inefficient and out of touch manager. One is to focus myopically on an overarching plan while ignoring the changing realities of worker situations and market issues. Management is not about choosing an abstract number and doing everything possible to achieve it under any circumstances. It is about gauging what’s possible, balancing it with what you can feasibly expect of your team and your customers, and optimally bridging those two sides of the equation. If you find yourself consistently missing the mark, despite your best efforts at economizing and motivating your team, it’s not the end of the world to readjust your expectations. In fact, it is an essential part of good management to know when you’ve set unrealistic goals and to honestly address them.
Bad Management Model B:
The other way you can fail as a manager is to go the other way, focusing solely on the personal plight of your workers and letting productivity slip. Being the kind of manager your workers can joke around with is fine, but you aren’t their parent or best friend. Your primary concern must always be figuring out how to maximize their professional potential. Sometimes that’s bound to make you look like the bad guy, and you have to be ok with that. Ultimately they will respect you more if they see that you are driven to help them become the best workers possible. If you’ve ever seen the sitcom The Office, the caricatured manager Michael Scott is the cartoon version of this type of managerial failure. I’m sure you agree that nobody wants to be the real life version of that guy.
Finding Your Balance
The key is walking the tightrope between these two poles. You will find yourself pulled in either direction on multiple occasions throughout each day of work. Lean into the wind from either side and keep moving forward, confident in your plan and your ability to lead your team to success. Sometimes this will take a light touch and other times you will need to come down hard. Knowing when and how to use either approach is the “artistic” component of management if you will. It can only be perfected through experience. Think of it as a craft, and with enough experience and hard work, you’ll soon acquire the necessary instincts. Many management candidates who enter reputed business schools after cracking SNAP exam learn the basics of right management effectively.
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