What managers do: planning, organising, leading and controlling

A manager gets things done through other people and with limited resources: time, money, equipment and attention. You might manage a team of twenty, two staff in a salon, a group of volunteers, or only your own small business. The same four functions apply.

The four functions

1. Planning: deciding what needs to happen and how. Setting goals, choosing priorities, making a budget, scheduling the week.
2. Organising: arranging people and resources so the plan can happen. Who does what, with which tools, and who reports to whom.
3. Leading: guiding and motivating people towards the goals. Communicating, coaching, setting an example, handling conflict.
4. Controlling: checking progress against the plan and correcting course. Measuring results, giving feedback, fixing problems.

They form a cycle. You plan, organise and lead; you check results; then you plan again with what you learnt.

The skills behind them

• Technical skills: knowing the work itself. A kitchen manager who can cook understands the pressure staff are under.
• People skills: listening, communicating, building trust and resolving conflict. These matter at every level.
• Thinking skills: seeing the bigger picture, spotting problems early and weighing options.

New managers often lean too much on technical skills and keep doing the work themselves. Part of becoming a manager is learning to let others do it, and helping them do it well.

Roles a manager plays

During one day you might be:

• a decision-maker: choosing between suppliers or approving leave,
• a communicator: passing information between staff, customers and owners,
• a coach: helping someone improve,
• a problem-solver: when the delivery doesn't arrive or two staff fall out,
• a representative: speaking for your team to customers, the owner or the community.

Managing in a small business

In a small business, the owner is usually the manager of everything: sales, money, staff and operations. Making time for the four functions, especially planning and controlling, stops the business from being run entirely by whatever crisis arrives that day.

A South African example

Thabiso was promoted from mechanic to workshop manager at a garage in Polokwane. For the first month he kept fixing cars himself and fell behind on everything else. His mentor asked him to block time each Monday to plan the week's jobs, assign them to his three mechanics with clear deadlines, check progress at midday, and handle customer calls himself. The workshop finished more jobs, and the mechanics said they finally knew what was expected of them.