How to be an effective manager? By Philemon Mugisha

Management Management is the art of getting things done through and with people in formally organized groups (Akrani 2011). Management has five major functions: planning, organizing, staffing, leading and controlling

Planning It involves critically choosing what tasks to be done, when to be done, and how to be done to achieve goals of the organization. (Akrani 2011). Activities: On 30 th, May, 2015, accountants will be working on creating annual reports. Chief managers will have meeting on 1 st, June, 2015, so that they check those reports

Organizing It involves creating relationships among workers as well as allocating resources to achieve different objectives. (Akrani 2011). Associated activity: Two new interns will be working on sorting files in the office Receptionists will be working with chief of departments to communicate their availability.

Staffing This involve selecting as well as training individuals in the organization for specific job responsibilities. (Akrani 2011). Activities: Training new interns for a certain job they have to do. Assigning them with different job responsibilities based on training provided.

Leading It involves guiding organization members throughout their activities in order to fulfill organizational goals. (Akrani 2011). Activities: Let me first help you (new employees) to understand more about our system. What are some of the challenges are you facing on the job?

Controlling It involves gathering information to evaluate performance of the employees toward achieving the goal of the organization (Akrani 2011). Task: Gathering work that has been done by employees to check if it is complete. Passing through previous performance and present performance to evaluate the improvement.

Management Styles Management has also styles: Directing Delegating Discussing

Directing This style involves giving directions to employees from the manager on what to do, how to do it and when to do something. The manager directs what to do. (Freifeld 2013)

Directing (cont.) Scenario: The manager of the organization get in the office with an appointment with investors. Directly, he enters the office telling his secretary to create a PowerPoint for him immediately. Also, by giving her instructions about how the PowerPoint should look like in terms of font, color, design, etc.

Delegating This style involves empowering employees through giving them some independent or group works to do by providing enough information of what to do. (Freifeld 2013)

Delegating (cont.) Scenario: Manager enters in the office and ask new interns to create annual reports of organization earnings. Then, the manager comes to interns to explain clearly what they need to do by also demonstrating how the task has to be done. Moreover, the manager follow up to check if interns has any other problem.

Discussing It is the discussion between the manager and the employees or the employees with the manager with aim of asking probing questions that helps to get to the reason behind any issue. (Freifeld 2013)

Discussing(cont.) Scenario: There is an issue of missing papers of customers. Manager organizes the meeting and ask the first employee, “who do you think might have taken them?”. And then ask the second employee, “How do you think those papers might have lost?” So, in this scenario answer can be found through asking discussions.

References Akrani, G. (2011 April 21). What is management? Definitions Meaning and Features. Retrieved May , from Freifeld, L. (2013, June 6). When and how to employ each of these styles— directing, discussing, and delegating—to maximize your effectiveness. Retrieved May 10, 2015, from Leveraging the Three Primary Management Styles.pdfhttp://cfaresources.s3.amazonaws.com/Converted_PDF/RES-