Manager Responsibilities

    Many articles have been written about the differences between Leadership and Management. Here is the most striking example that reflects this difference.
    A leader is one who, in a group of people lost in the jungle, climbs onto the highest tree and shows the direction "Let's go there !!!". A manager is one who, knowing the direction, organizes people who systematically cut through the machete's road. Thus, the Leader must have the ability to rise to a higher level (in this case, the tree) of understanding the problem, vision (it is also called vision) and a broad outlook (when he has climbed already high enough). Manager - the ability to convince \ make people move forward, organize work \ nutrition \ sleep, encourage them. Of course, it’s great when both the Leader and the Manager are the same person.
    So back to our lumberjack and his responsibilities ...


    Here is an excerpt from the wonderful book by management classic Peter Drucker “Management Practice” (chapter Manager and his work).

    Responsibilities of the manager:
    1. Setting goals . The manager determines what these goals should be. It determines what private goals should be in each key area of ​​the enterprise. He decides what needs to be done to achieve these goals. He makes these goals achievable by expounding them to people on whose effectiveness the achievement of these goals depends.

    2. Organizational work. He analyzes the necessary actions, decisions and relationships. He classifies the work as a whole. He divides it into activities that can be effectively managed. He divides these activities into manageable jobs. By grouping these activities and activities in a certain way, he presents them in the form of an organizational structure consisting of a number of units. He selects people to manage these units.

    3. Motivation of employees and communication with them.Of the many people responsible for performing various tasks, he must create a team of like-minded people. He does this based on his own practical experience in managing people. He does this on the basis of his own attitude towards the people he controls. He does this by applying certain methods of incentives and rewards for good work. He does this using the opportunity to promote the most distinguished employees. He does this by constantly communicating with his subordinates, and this communication must necessarily be bilateral in nature.

    4. Measurement of indicators.The manager sets clear indicators that reflect the effectiveness of the performance of a particular type of work, of this or that work. He is responsible for ensuring that each employee of the organization has appropriate performance indicators or performance criteria that take into account both the effectiveness of the organization as a whole and the effectiveness of a particular person, helping him successfully cope with his duties. The manager analyzes the effectiveness of each employee, evaluates and interprets it. And, as in any other field of his activity, the manager sets out to his subordinates and management the essence of these measurements and analyzes the results obtained with their help.

    5. The development of their subordinates.The management style of each manager can either facilitate or impede the self-development and self-improvement of their subordinates. The manager either leads his subordinates in the right way, or, conversely, leads them to a standstill. The manager either helps them to reveal their abilities, or, conversely, suppresses them. It strengthens the personal qualities that form a worthy personality or, conversely, destroys them. He either maintains self-esteem in them, or, on the contrary, bends them “into a ram’s horn”.

    All these actions are the basic elements of the work of any manager, even if he does not suspect about it. He may perform them better or worse, but he must fulfill them.

    The mere ability to set goals correctly does not make a person a manager, just like the ability to put a simple stitch in the right place does not make a person a real surgeon. However, if a person does not know how to set goals, then there can be no question of the proper performance of his duties as a manager, just as a person who does not know how to lay elementary stitches cannot be considered a real surgeon. And as a good surgeon, constantly improving in suturing, over time becomes an excellent surgeon, just like a good manager, constantly improving his own qualifications and effectiveness in all five basic elements of his work, with time he necessarily becomes an excellent manager.

    Here is a list of additional very useful literature:
    1. General idea of ​​management - Peter Drucker “Management Practice”
    2. Personal effectiveness \ Time management - Stephen Covey “7 skills of highly efficient people”
    3. Project management \ PMBOK - Rita Mulcahy “PMP Exam Prep”

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