Some people suppose that good managers are born and that the ability to lead and coordinate others is genetic and cannot be learned or taught. This is an oversimplification. Yes, some people are naturally good at managing others, but everyone can systematically improve their performance as managers.
Management skills can be learned and managers can take steps to become more effective. Social scientists have studied the practice of management and have found common behaviors that make some managers more effective than others. These behaviors can be taught, learned and implemented.
What is management?
Management is the direction of people and resources to accomplish goals. Put another way, it is the use of the resources you have to get the objectives you want. Even though this sounds simple enough, management can be broken down into four principle management actions:
1. Planning – defining appropriate goals. Goals can be high-level strategic goals and smaller goals.
2. Organizing – designing and maintaining relationships in the workplace so that different people can work together toward achieving the organization’s goals. This includes designing job positions, staffing and delegating authority.
3. Leading – influencing others to complete a task or achieve a common goal.
4. Controlling – checking performance against planned progress. Deviations from plan or potential deviations from plan are corrected or prevented.
These responsibilities are no longer reserved for executives. In the modern workplace, management actions are often required of workers at every level of the organization. Everyone, even those of us without management aspirations, should learn what managers do and think about in order to better contribute to organizations.
Fortunately, nearly everyone can become better at each of these management activities. There are practical steps people can take to become more proficient. There are techniques and strategies to become a more effective leader, even though leading is the most complex and difficult to study of these activities.
