Street Smart Management

by Jo Haygood-Guerrero
(WarGoddess)

Management is all about ensuring that an organization operates smoothly as it

journeys towards its goal.

It is an art and a science. It involves eight (8) tasks: Planning, Organizing and
Coordinating, Promoting Organizational Values, developing people, Communicating,
Directing Operation, Controlling deviations and Solving Problems.

Very importantly, an organization is about people-- human beings with feelings.

They are the best assets of any organization.

I would say that for an organization to succeed, the manager should also be a good
leader. He should be able to inspire his people to cooperate to be able to
achieve the goals of the organization.

The scholars at Professional Development Center at Webster University says:

“Leadership is more than management. It's about relationships and empowering
people. It's that extra ingredient which, when added to solid technical and
management skills, gives the firm the competitive advantage. “
1. Sizing-up Skills, through which leaders analyze, understand and can forecast
their own and others' behavior in management situations.
2. Communication Skills – taking into consideration the level of education and
understanding of the people we deal with.
3. Motivational Skills – making your people move by way of material and
psychological incentives
4. Adaptive Skills, which allow leaders to relate to their people as unique
individuals.
5. Team Building Skills, through which the leader galvanizes a group of unique
individuals to become a highly productive team.

Many people hold positions of authority by virtue of ownership, heredity,

education, oratorical skill, appointment, election, circumstances, or even bluff,
but the exercise of authority doesn’t necessarily make them leaders. Positions may
command respect, deference, even fear, but they do not necessarily have the
willing commitment and loyalty of their followers unless this has been earned by
the exercise of leadership.

My organization, is consists of seven people, 9 including me and my husband as

managing owners.

I am the brain of the organization, and my husband is the brawn. I organize and
plan, he listens, makes comments and finalize an issue based on our deliberations.
Then he implements our plans. If he encounters a problem, he consults with me.

To help him manage the store, I assigned people to take care of certain tasks.
This way, I don’t have to continually be the one to directly monitor the store
activities. The “supervisors” simply reports t me if there are significant
concerns that they cannot take care by themselves. This system enables me to
focus on my creativity to come up with other income-generating activities for the
business.

As managers, me and my husband are generous to a fault. We treat our people

almost like family.
The moment they are hired, they are given orientations. We define expectations
and draw lines as to who’s who in the organizational structure. This way, they
know where they stand.

My husband, being inside in charge of operations shows them how things are done,
the way he likes it. He explains why things are done that way. We assume that
they can understand the reasons behind the procedures.

We understand that being mere helpers, it takes more than one sitting to inculcate
in their heads what we want from them. There will always be lapses. So, we
gather notes for the week and take up with them in a meeting to remind them of
their lapses. But we are very careful not to be too harsh. That would be a
display, not really of intolerance but of stupidity. We should know better than
to think that they are smarter than they really are.

With their lapses, we come to understand the capabilities of our people. That’s a
chance to size up their strengths, the work they do best.

It is not easy to deal with people not within your level. We have learned that
things have to be spelled out in so many terms before they grasp what you really
mean. But communicating your policies should come not only verbally but also in
practice. As managers leading them to do their duties, we provide the example so
that they may know.

We are a small establishment and we don’t pay much. But what we lack in monetary
terms, we supply in the “caring” side. We give free meals, free lodging. We
teach them skills which they’d not get otherwise from other employers. We show
them that we care about their welfare. We make their concerns our own. Their
birthdays are celebrated with small treats at dinner time. Christmases are fun.
Little people require very little motivation. Their joys are shallow. But if you
know them and you tickle them where they are most sensitive, you are their master.

Each individual is unique. You have seven people, you deal with seven different
people. How much more for seventy? But that’s the challenge of people—to deal
with diverse orientations in behavior.

But the greatest challenge of all is to make people from different cultures and
orientations work together as one. Herein is revealed the real character of the
manager-leader. Whether in making them toe the line, you use soft words or an
iron voice.

But a good manager, though tough, must never be rough. A good manager with an
air of command, does not have to raise his voice to be heard. Subordinates know
if their manager is worth working for, bones, muscles, blood and sweat.

For me in my organization, my people love me, trust and follow me, because they
know that I care. Because they know that they are treated as human beings. That
they are people.

True to form, they treat me with awe, almost reverence.