| Product: |
How do you Become an Effective Manager? |
| Date: |
15/07/07 (174 review reads) |
| Rating: |
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Advantages: Differing managerial styles have differing strengths.
Disadvantages: No matter how good you are, no one will love you for it.
Management is such a broad and wide ranging concept yet it is something we all attempt to do in our lives. Whether it is someone juggling a household budget to cover the bills for another month or a parent trying to manage their time so they get child one to ballet dancing while picking up child two from football. Management is something we do on our day to day basis.
However, being an effective Manager involves much more than the feats of time management and Organization above. This is not to say Time Management and Organizational skill are not an important part of management. Being able to allocate set amounts of time and organize your schedule effectively is one of the best ways of ensuring tasks are completed. Furthermore, it is also a good way of ensuring important meetings and tasks are not neglected. Use of a diary or seven is vital for the modern day manager and a good phone or PDA with plenty of bingley-bingley beep alarms is vital to ensure you do not miss your latest deadline.
Being an effective Manager is often about your ability to communicate with others. How well you deal with people across your organization can determine how well your business operates. Staying the right side of approachable to your employees is notoriously difficult as you will also want to ensure that they have a respect for you and your title. Do you try for the friendly joker and face being lampooned in a David Brent way or do you detach yourself completely and refuse to listen to anything they say? If you go for the totalitarian approach you risk isolating yourself from your workforce completely and in an age were "work-life balance" and "investors in people" are valuable commodities this is a high risk strategy.
In essence it can come down to Leadership style. managers are often split into two types, the delegator and the leader. The delegator will assign tasks to all his or her staff allowing them the freedom to pursue whatever they so choose. This method of management allows the most freedom for the management but carries its own set if problems. The primary problem with this management style is that the workforce automatically assign the delegator the laziness title. This is the manager who spends long portions of their time at their desk or in meetings. Employees automatically assume you are playing Solitaire or having a Latte in Costa Coffee so if you do choose to be a delegator be aware you risk losing any respect your workforce has for you. Furthermore, if you spend all your time in your office while your employees are elsewhere, they can do pretty much what they like with no recourse or chance of being found out.
The leader on the other hand is on the other end of the scale. This type of manager can often be seen at the coal face and is usually the first one in and the last to leave. The best thing about this management style is that you can actively engage and monitor your employees and your business. A visible presence within your workforce you are able to command the respect of your workforce and illustrate your work ethic to colleague and outside agencies. However, this method of management also has it's inherent problems. This type of manager may well have the respect of the workforce but they are often seen as a pushover. The manager who covers up the cracks of his or her lazy, slacking employees. They often give holidays at a moments notice, swop shifts and listen to countless employee problems. While this does not sound on the surface, like a bad thing. This is usually a manager who cannot stand the idea of being disliked by his workforce. It leads to hesitancy regarding disciplining and a workforce who think you are there for them rather than the other way round.
Sounds like you cannot win doesn't it! Well in a way you can't. The post of manager is not an enviable one. Your employees will not love you if you are doing your job properly and likely neither will your employer. Yours is a necessary but unrewarding role were you act as go-between for employees and others outside the agency. You run the show and keep the cogs whirring but nobody will thank you for it. The good manager will perform a balancing act in which they will be a communicator, disciplinarian and leader. My advice to any prospective Manager would be to arm yourself with knowledge. Know your role, that of your employees and most of all your business. Gain qualifications relevant to your role, access the Internet and gain experience by talking to others. A lot depends on your personality and ability to withstand pressure, try to be laid back in your approach and give yourself time away from work. The work-life balance that you tell your employees is all important is just as important to you. Do not let work consume you.
Unfortunately, despite all I have said above nothing beats experience. Management is a learning process and what I would say to anyone new to it is learn from yours and others mistakes and do not be disheartened. Many would love to be were you are, you have probably worked hard to get there, enjoy it.
dididave. Residential Home Manager for nine years and counting.
Summary: Good luck to all Managers, hope this helps!
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