While most positions and departments within a business are tasked with specific duties based on particular knowledge, expertise, or company needs, managers can have a broader and more complex set of responsibilities. More than just specialized knowledge, management requires an ability to navigate numerous procedural, structural, and interpersonal challenges in the process of guiding one's team to the completion of various goals. Show
Originally identified by Henri Fayol as five elements, there are now four commonly accepted functions of management that encompass these necessary skills: planning, organizing, leading, and controlling.1 Consider what each of these functions entails, as well as how each may look in action. PlanningOne main role of a manager is creating a plan to meet company goals and objectives. This involves allocating employee resources and delegating responsibilities, as well as setting realistic timelines and standards for completion. Planning requires those in management roles to continuously check on team progress in order to make small adjustments when necessary, while still maintaining a clear picture of a company's larger aims and goals. Much of one's planning function consists of working independently to determine what responsibilities must be given to which employees, setting priority levels for certain tasks, and creating timelines. However, communication also plays an important role. For example, managers deal with planning when they meet with company leadership to discuss short and long-term goals, and when they communicate the specifics of a new project to their team or check-in periodically to ensure individual objectives are being met on time. OrganizingAlong with planning, a manager's organizational skills can help to ensure a company or departmental unit runs smoothly. From establishing internal processes and structures to knowing which employees or teams are best suited for specific tasks, keeping everyone and everything organized throughout daily operations are important functions of management. Organization isn't just about delegating tasks efficiently and making sure employees have what they need to accomplish their tasks, however. Managers also need to be able to reorganize in response to new challenges. This could come into practice in the form of slightly adjusting the timeline for a project or re-allocating tasks from one team to another. Or, it could mean significantly altering a team's internal structure and roles in response to company growth. LeadingManagers should be comfortable and confident commanding their team members’ daily tasks as well as during periods of significant change or challenge. This involves projecting a strong sense of direction and leadership when setting goals and communicating new processes, products and services, or internal policy. Leadership can manifest itself in a number of ways, including recognizing when employees need an extra boost of reinforcement and praise to handling conflicts between team members fairly and decisively. Often, managers may function as leaders even during small personal interactions by modeling supportive, encouraging, and motivational qualities. ControllingTo ensure all of the above functions are working toward the success of a company, managers should consistently monitor employee performance, quality of work, and the efficiency and reliability of completed projects. Control (and quality control) in management is about making sure the ultimate goals of the business are being adequately met, as well as making any necessary changes when they aren't. How to Develop Key Management SkillsWhile some of the above functions of management can extend logically from experience and skills developed in entry-level positions, formal training and education may provide advantages. For instance, pursuing a business management degree can offer the opportunity to study management philosophies and best practices in order to help one prepare to pursue management positions following graduation. Work to Develop Your Management Skills With an MBAFor those currently working in entry-level positions, seeking out a mentor at work and keeping an eye out for professional development opportunities can allow you to build the skills needed for management roles. Many people may also choose to return to school to pursue an MBA in order to help advance their business knowledge. Given that the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates that there will about 807,300 new management jobs created between 2016 and 2026,2 it may be sensible to hone your management skills. Are you ready to take the next step? Learn more about online business degrees at AIU today.AIU cannot guarantee employment or salary. For important information about the educational debt, earnings and completion rates of students who attended these programs, go to www.aiuniv.edu/disclosures. Being a good manager is a big deal. It’s not just about keeping your employees happy and productive. It’s also about making sure objectives are met with the highest level of efficiency and effectiveness. Here’s where the 4 big functions of management come into play. Combined, these 4 functions become an essential tool in the manager’s toolbox, as they help you achieve your highest level of contribution while maximizing your resources. In this article, we’ll discuss how each function works and why they’re important for your team. We’ll also give you some ideas on how to make them all more efficient in the workplace. What are the 4 functions of management?The 4 functions of management have been around since the early 1900s and were first coined by Henri Fayol. They are considered “foundation theory,” meaning they are the basics of business. These 4 functions are:
(Image Source) Get started with monday.com Let’s dive into each of the 4 functions. PlanningThe purpose of planning is to come up with ways to make things happen. You do this by creating strategies, making decisions, and developing business plans, which include budgets and forecasts. But planning is much more than just making a list of things management wants to get done. Planning is about looking at the direction you want to go and breaking it down into small steps you can handle more easily. What’s involved in the planning function?The planning function involves a few key elements, including:
How to make planning more efficientNow that you understand the basics of planning, let’s explore a few ideas to make the process more efficient. Centralize your workspace Planning is a team effort, and communication is key to making your team efficient in delivering the plan you create together. Here’s where centralization comes into play. By centralizing your communication into a single place, you make it easier for everyone on your team to participate in proper planning, and you create a single source of truth for all plan-related information. For example, with monday.com, you could create a “planning board” where all of your most important planning documents live. To do it, you can simply install our digital asset management template and adapt it to your exact needs. Then, team members can access these files from anywhere, and they will always have the latest version. You can also use monday.com to manage your meetings and facilitate real-time communication among the team. We even have a “meeting notes template” you can share with teammates so that everyone stays on the same page. This way, you can encourage collaboration and share updates quickly. Monitor your plan on a regular basis A great way to make sure that you execute your plan efficiently is to monitor it on a regular basis. This can be done by using automated reports. For example, you could use monday.com’s reporting dashboards to see how your team uses their time and find ways to improve efficiency. You could also get reports based on any time period, including the current week. For example, you could easily check how much time was spent on projects this week, last week, or over the past 4 weeks. This will help you stay in touch with the activities your team is working on and make sure that you’re all on track to deliver by the end of each month. OrganizingOrganizing is about setting up an appropriate organizational structure to work with and making sure that you’re all rowing in the same direction. Organizing considers 4 areas:
Getting them right makes sure that people know what they should be doing on a day-to-day basis, who’s responsible for certain tasks, and the extent of their authority. What’s involved with organizing?Organizing involves a few key elements, including:
How to make organizing more efficientLet’s explore a few ideas to make your organizing process more efficient: Make workflows visible and accessible to everyone A solid structure that is visible to everyone makes it easy for employees to see what needs to be done and allows them to step in if something changes. For example, with monday.com, you can share your workflow progress with your team members in real-time. This allows everyone to visually see where you are within projects and tasks, as well as what needs to be done next. Another great thing about monday.com is that it makes updating your progress an easy, streamlined process. For example, you can create rules to automate updates on your task progress. If an employee isn’t meeting their deadlines or has fallen behind on a project, they can be automatically notified and prompted to provide an update. This is a great way to make sure everyone is on the same page without being intrusive. Clearly define team member responsibilities on a macro and micro level Let’s say you have 4 interns who are working under a supervisor. It’s important to know exactly what they’re each responsible for. You don’t want 4 people all trying to do the same job, so you’ll need a clear understanding of who does what. Adopt a Work OS to streamline your workflows A Work OS can help your team handle their daily work more efficiently by simplifying the collection, distribution, and storage of information. With monday.com, you can assign tasks with deadlines and monitor how long it takes employees to complete tasks. You can also create separate workflows for different teams within your organization, which is great for keeping projects separated and organized. You can even integrate your favorite communication apps to improve cross-team collaboration. With monday.com’s Slack integration, for instance, you can easily communicate with your team about upcoming projects and deadlines without having to switch between platforms. This makes it easier to keep everyone up-to-date so that they know exactly what is going on with their tasks. Get started LeadingLeading is the management process of directing a group of individuals toward a shared goal. This requires inspiring those working for you to look beyond short-term goals and instead focus on the big picture.That’s why effective leadership is about creating a vision, building commitment, communicating effectively, and getting people to work cohesively together. What’s involved with leading?As you lead your team, 4 things are critical:
How to make leading more efficientSome ideas to make leading more efficient include: Share progress with your team By making your results more transparent and available to everyone on your team, you can increase the feeling of being part of something bigger. With monday.com, for example, you get access to reporting dashboards that help you monitor progress and keep everyone on your team on the same page. You can even broadcast these dashboards on screens around your office so that everyone is aware of how you’re doing. This can increase the feeling of ownership and responsibility and inspire people to work toward a common goal. Communicate in context Communication is key to leading. And when your team deals with so much information, it’s important that you add context to every conversation. This is especially important for remote and hybrid teams. When everyone is based in different time zones, it may take longer for people to respond. But by adding context, everyone on your team will be aware of the background and the situation you’re discussing. This will help them to give better feedback and take quicker action when needed. With monday.com, for example, you can create context by adding comments, tasks, or links to documents in your conversation. This way, everyone is aware of what needs to be done and can act on it without having to ask for more information. ControllingIn management, controlling refers to the processes you have in place to make sure things work properly on a continuous basis. These include rules, regulations, procedures, and norms. It’s the preventative maintenance portion of running a good business. What’s involved in controlling?The 5 main parts of controlling are:
How to make controlling more efficientTo make controlling more efficient, here are a few ideas: Set up a system to oversee compliance
For example, with monday.com, you can set up rules and reminders to ensure that your team follows the necessary steps, such as approvals for tasks within projects. You can also use monday.com to track the compliance of your organization’s policies, such as how many times employees have signed up for training or taken sick leave and how many times employees have used/rescheduled PTO. Oversee the workload You need a way to track everything that goes through your company. This includes measuring how many tasks are assigned, which employees are working on them, and whether or not they’ve completed the task. For example, with monday.com’s workload view, you can track the capacity of each of your team members. This allows you to effectively manage your employees so that the workload is evenly balanced and no one is under-utilized or burned out. Monitor the quality of work You need to make sure your team is producing high-quality work. The easiest way to do this is by having a central location where all employees have access to internal documents, so everyone can see who’s responsible for what and how things should be completed. For example, with monday.com, you can create a central location for all your internal documents to be stored, so nothing gets lost, and everyone always knows what’s expected of them. Not only that, but this will make collaboration between team members much more efficient, as they can simply reference the document in the task they’re assigned to complete. Thanks to monday.com’s Activity Log, you can explore the complete history of changes to specific documents and tasks. This helps you stay in the know and figure out who’s responsible for any issues that arise. The better the management, the healthier the businessA business is only as strong as its leadership. The 4 functions of management will help you strengthen your management processes and get the most out of your resources. By adopting the right Work OS to manage your team, you’re able to save time, cut costs, and increase overall productivity pretty quickly. You can see for yourself by checking out our project management template. It’s fully customizable, and you can get started right away. Why not give it a try today? Get started |