CHAPTER 1
THE ESSENCE OF MANAGEMENT
Managers provide an essential contribution to productivity as theyfocus on managerial tasks and delegate expert responsibilities.
Definition of Management
In order to understand what it means to be an effective manager, we needa practical, useful definition of the term management. In simplest terms,management means "causing employees to achieve goals."
In other words, managers do anything necessary to ensure that theirorganizations (employees) achieve certain goals. This means determiningwho is responsible for what, when, how, and by what means. Effectivemanagement involves active and competent use of all the techniques in themanagement tool kit: management principles (essence of management);goal setting and strategic planning; organizational structure; governanceand controls; employee development and advancement; communication;and motivation. This use of the management tool kit allows managers todelegate, which means they assign expert (specialist) tasks to appropriatelydeveloped employees, freeing up their own time for management tasks.(See Introduction for management tool kit.)
Mastering all this is essential to success as a manager. Remember, managersprovide their most essential contribution to productivity by focusing onmanagerial tasks and delegating expert responsibilities. Let's look at atrue-to-life business scenario to see this truth in action.
True-to-Life Business Scenario: Focusing on ManagerialTasks by Delegating Expert Responsibilities
Amanda is the department manager of a sales function withina medium-size corporation. One of her employees, Brent, hasbeen her direct report for two years. She has provided him withadequate employee development, and he has proved to be atalented salesperson and valued employee. Another employee,Caitlin, has a lot of promise but insufficient experience in salescalls. Amanda recognizes Caitlin's talents, knows she and Brentinteract well, and sees an opportunity for further developmentof both employees at the same time.
Amanda therefore makes the (management) decision to providefurther training to Caitlin, who lacks expertise in sales calls, byinstructing Brent, the experienced salesperson, to accompanyCaitlin to eight sales calls during the following month, to analyzethe respective outcomes of each call, and to propose suitablemeasures for the future.
Amanda, not Brent, is developing Caitlin. This is developmentas a managerial task. Accompanying Caitlin to her salesconversations and providing the subsequent analysis becomeexpert tasks for Brent, as delegated to him by Amanda. Amandais developing Caitlin by making the necessary decisions forthis purpose; Brent is helping Amanda to achieve these goalsby carrying out the required partial tasks she has assigned bymeans of her authority as manager. (Amanda is, in essence, alsofurther developing Brent through the assignment.)
At the end of the month, Amanda will assess the results(management task) and then make new (management) decisionswith respect to Caitlin (and Brent, if applicable). Clearly,Amanda follows the principle of focusing on management tasksby delegating expert responsibilities. This enables her to fulfillher own management responsibility of enhancing productivityand profitability for the company.
Management Control Loop
Depicting management as a control loop (see figure 1-1) can help usefficiently view all relevant management tools and put them into appropriatecontext.
Basically, the management control loop shows us two things:
1. The necessity for managers to effectively use every element in themanagement tool kit
2. The ways in which that use (effective or ineffective) impacts employees
In order for the management control loop to work, the company musteffectively establish and use organizational structure. Organizationalstructure primarily includes responsibility for results and decision-makingpower, both the fundamental roles of effective management. Whenemployees are sure of the chain of command and the line of decision-makingauthority, it is easier for them to take direction and then achieve set goals.This leads us to goal setting and strategic planning, both of which are key toproductivity and profitability, as companies cannot achieve outcomes whenmanagement does not adequately use these tools. Employee development,governance, and controls are tools managers need to use to measure thesuccess of goals and plans. Finally, communication and motivation are thetools that make it all work. (We will discuss each of these techniques fromthe management tool kit in detail throughout the subsequent chapters ofthis book.)
We can measure the value of any management tool/technique by itsinfluence on employees.
No single management technique is applicable or inapplicable to allemployees. The crucial criterion for selecting the appropriate managementtool to use in any given situation is the intended effect the manager wantsthat tool to have on employees. Intention is everything. Effective managersalways remain mindful of their desired intentions, as this is the best way toachieve desired results.
Expert versus Management Tasks
All managers in all three levels of management (upper, middle, and lower)have two types of responsibility: management tasks and expert tasks.Accordingly, during a certain percentage of their working hours, managersengage in management tasks, and during the remaining percentage theyengage in expert tasks. But remember, managers' essential contributionto productivity must always involve focusing on managerial tasks anddelegating expert responsibilities. Let's look at how to best balancemanagement and expert tasks, following figure 1-2, above.
Balance of Time Distribution between Management Tasksand Expert Tasks
It is key to ensure that there is a balance between management and experttasks, with neither too much nor too little time spent on one or the other.Figures 1-3 and 1-4 illustrate the pitfalls of a lack of balance of timedistribution between expert tasks and management tasks. Although thetrue-to-life business scenario earlier in this chapter did not illustrate all ofAmanda's daily tasks, it did display her effective use of delegating in orderto maximize her managerial tasks and minimize her expert ones. We canreasonably surmise that she likely competently achieves this balance in herday-to-day management.
In theory, it seems logical that the share of management tasks shouldincrease at each successive level of management. However, in day-to-daypractice, managers—particularly new managers—find allocating moretime to management tasks difficult (see figure 1-3). This difficultyprimarily occurs when managers do not receive adequate developmentand so are not sure of how to "let go" of doing all the expert tasks theyexcelled at in their chosen fields. Whether they are engineers, softwaredevelopers, salespeople, marketers, procurement specialists, accountants,etc., most new managers receive their promotions based on success in theirrespective expert activities. However, this success as an expert does notautomatically translate to success as a manager! In fact, without adequatemanagement training and development, these promotions often result inthe loss of a superb expert and the gain of a bad manager. Specifically,this insufficient training results in the challenge of achieving balancebetween managerial and expert tasks (especially early on in a manager'scareer). Promotion without adequate preparation has never created a goodmanager and never will.
What's the solution? First, employees should be rewarded for excellentperformance, but they should not be promoted to management withoutadequate training. Second, promotion should never be a solution toinadequate managerial staffing or inappropriate managerial workloads.Expert tasks need to be shared fairly and appropriately, and when thatbecomes impossible, it is management's responsibility to fix the problem inthe way that is best for all employees and for the company as a whole.
Remember, always focus on managerial tasks first—that is how wemanagers best serve the company.
Our core principle highlighted above notwithstanding, many managers donot effectively reduce their expert tasks, whether because of inadequatemanagement development, inability to delegate, or some other reason.Figure 1-3 below shows the typical ratio of management-to-expert tasks.
The plain truth is that we often place too much emphasis on expert decisions,particularly in the middle levels of management. The reason for this maybe that upper management levels exert strong pressure on the middle levelsby expecting them to be knowledgeable in every detail of their field so thatthey can provide such information to executives, serving as a sort of "bufferzone." Or lower-level managers may depend too much on employee supportin expert fields (another instance of the "buffer zone"). Once again, the bestway to avoid this issue is by focusing on management tasks.
Any expert promoted to the management level faces a crucial decisionand must honestly answer this question: Am I ready to abandon part of myprevious activities? This "sacrifice" may be difficult because new managersare often promoted to the management level as a result of their professionalsuccess as an expert, as we previously described.
Hardworking, dedicated employees will naturally wish to advance, andthey will also naturally appreciate the company's validation of their efforts.However, without requisite training, the "reward" quickly becomes a"punishment" as unprepared new managers usually fail dismally—or sooverwork themselves to avoid failing that they wind up exhausted, burnedout, and miserable, and these quickly lead to ineffective managing, evenamong the most well-intentioned, dedicated employees, who are usuallyalso the hardest workers. It is management's responsibility to train staffprior to delegating. Staff success means management success; success forone and all means success for the company.
Again, losing sight of the number-one priority of every manager—focusingon managerial tasks—leads to the less-than-ideal situations depicted infigures 1-3 and 1-4. In truth, expert tasks should decrease at the samerate as management tasks increase. However, in addition to the reasonsalready described, many managers do not accept this fact and believe theyshould, and can, maintain their previous expert responsibilities. Becauseof inadequate management development, they believe their departmentswill be successful only if they themselves control all the tasks. This isclearly a misguided perspective, as delegating is a key management tool. Inaddition, this attitude leads to chronic work overload, burnout, and manyof the other negative results described above. In most cases, managers havethemselves to blame because they fail to set clear priorities and neglect tofocus on management tasks, resulting in work hours increased by as muchas 30 percent.
Not to restate the obvious, but more often than not, overworked managershave received insufficient management development in one or more ways:promoted to management without requisite training; required to carry outtoo many management tasks and expert tasks simultaneously; or receivedlittle to no communication from higher levels of management as to thecompany's expectations of managers' day-to-day activities.
Short-term excessive work hours may be required in certain circumstances(illness, holidays, unexpected events, etc.).
Managers who continue to carry out expert tasks as a habit frequentlyoverestimate themselves as "great experts." They retain decision makingfor themselves, believing no one else can make decisions as well as theydo. Alternatively, upper management fails to effectively communicateexpectations to the rest of the management chain. Lower- or midlevelmanagers whose "hands are tied," requiring them to fulfill expert tasksand management tasks, will never be effective managers. Regardless of theunderlying reasons, many managers do not act like managers because theydo not think like managers.
To be effective and successful, every manager must act and think like amanager 100 percent of the time. That means focusing on managerialtasks and delegating expert ones.
Remembering that being a manager is a profession separate from theprevious expert position held makes it easier to accept and move past thischallenge. Employees who truly enjoy their expert positions should be offeredother avenues for reward and promotion so that management is not theonly advancement path they can pursue. The management path combinesnatural ability, professional skill, and earned recognition, creating a win-winfor employees, management, and the company. Perhaps the twenty-firstcentury, with all its advances in technology and virtual work environments,will be the one to make this ideal situation a reality in every company.
Management Styles
Theories on psychology and personality abound, and a comprehensivediscussion of them would be beyond the scope of this book. However,effective management does entail an understanding of people and humandynamics, so we must briefly describe some personality basics as theypertain to management styles. There are many useful personality-typeparadigms and sorters, but most require an entire book or course trainingto adequately explain them. (Myers-Briggs Type Indicator [MBTI], KeirseyPersonality Sorter, and McCrae/Costa "Big Five" are but a few of the moreworthwhile ones to investigate.)
For managers, however, Everything DiSC can be more effective in day-to-dayuse. DiSC stands for dominance, influence, steadiness, and conscientiousness,each of which is an area that individual people most identify with in behaviorand relationships. The Everything DiSC model correlates each of these mainfour areas into specific key segments of workplace behaviors: accuracy,action, challenges, collaboration, enthusiasm, results, support, and stability.Most individuals will display strengths in at least three key segments, whichmeans they will display weaknesses or limitations in the other segments.That helps us see that managers benefit from having at least a workingunderstanding of how different personality types behave, react, and respond.Effective managers can and do benefit from achieving such understanding,and it enables them to adapt their management styles as needed.
Let's remain aware that personality traits can have positive andnegative expressions. Assertiveness and attention to detail each have anappropriate place in different workplace situations, as do enthusiasm andaccommodation; however, if any of them are taken to an extreme, theycan create less-than-ideal situations. Suffice it to say that the infinitecombinations of personalities make life interesting indeed. Consequently,they can make day-to-day interaction in the workplace rather challenging.Keeping all this in mind allows for more-effective daily management ofemployees, more-successful interaction with upper management, andoptimal performance within the company.
A final word of caution: use awareness of personality types as a general guideto what makes people tick. That is, our knowledge here should ideally be atool that enhances our instincts and intuition about the employees we manage(as well as our peers and superiors). Avoid using and thinking about peoplein terms of buzzwords, as such popular psychology jargon is often overusedand misused. The goal here is not to be judgmental, just to be aware.
Everyone has strengths, weaknesses, and limitations. As managers, we mustbalance our interactions with wisdom, fairness, and understanding. So nowlet's move on to the daily situations where personality and managementstyle blend.
Situational Management
Managers can approach the primary management objective of "causingemployees to achieve goals" in different ways. However, the issue ofappropriate management behavior does arise. Over the years, managementtheorists have developed a range of models that serve to explainmanagement behavior. Let's explore these models in order to betterunderstand management behavior.
One common model describes two behavioral extremes: the authoritarianmanagement style and the cooperative management style. According tothis model, managers must select from two vastly different behaviors—infact, they are polar opposites. Although authoritarian management was thestyle of choice for decades, the recommended style of choice in today'sbusiness world is cooperative management. As we have already seen—andwill continue to see as our discussion progresses—the twenty-first-centuryworkplace entails cooperation as part of success, from both the employeeand management perspective. Authoritarian managers will generally notsucceed when 50 percent or more of the workforce telecommutes, andemployees who do not buy in to cooperative efforts (i.e., teamwork) willgenerally not succeed in today's competitive workplace.
