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7 Things Effective Managers Do

Are you leveraging your management powers for maximum effect? No matter the size of the company you own or work for, it’s important to examine all the operational areas that fall into your purview. That’s because managers typically omit one or more tactics that could make a significant difference in the results they get day after day.

If you check with a business textbook on the subject, chances are you’ll see four traditional sub-categories under managerial supervision, namely directing, planning, controlling, and organizing. Each of the four includes vast zones of responsibility. Of course, every company has its own way of doing things, which means you may or may not hold all those tasks in your portfolio. What do today’s managerial officers do in real-world companies?

List of Fruitful Things Managers Do

Here are some short outlines of how people oversee the work of others in various managerial roles.

1. Money and Costs

Allocating money and managing costs are two core functions of management’s overall role. Typically, finance and accounting departments carry out orders from higher-ups about how to perform these tasks. However, within those departments, supervisors make decisions that involve huge sums of money and affect annual budgets in important ways. After all, a for-profit entity is first and foremost concerned with making money. So, anyone who allocates incoming profit and pays the bills is closely tied to the essential task of daily operations.

2. Vehicle Fleets

In transport companies, people who oversee vehicle fleets are at the very center of the organization’s profit-making activity. Fleet supervisors perform one of the core management functions you read about in textbooks. They allocate equipment and people to accomplish the organization’s goals. Software systems make it possible for decision-makers to create efficient routes, comply with DOT (Department of Transportation) regulations, make sure drivers don’t exceed the allowed number of hours, deliver loads on time, and much more. You can review a comprehensive guide to learn more about the way these programs work, particularly how DOT compliance management software helps supervisors avoid costly penalties and fees.

3. Goals

Commercial and non-profit entities have a vast array of goals, some short-term and others long-term. A manager’s job nearly always includes knowing which steps to take for excellent brainstorming and helping to craft these goals, even when a board of directors makes the final decisions about which ones to pursue. Some of the most common goals are related to quarterly and annual profit targets, sales quotas, market share, expense levels, and the number of new customers brought on board.

4. Day to Day Operations

Directing people is at the very heart of any manager’s job profile. Whether the business employs 10 or 10,000 workers, someone has to instruct new hires about what to do. But the direction of people also includes the concept of training, which can be an ongoing and lengthy process regardless of what the organization sells.

5. Changes

Whose job is it to evaluate performance and make necessary course adjustments? In nearly every business, that responsibility falls on managers’ shoulders. Adaptation can mean many things, including the addition of new products, hiring additional workers, cutting expenses to the bone during tough times, and laying off significant numbers of employees. Supervisory personnel charged with the task of measuring performance and making the changes necessary to stay on course play a critical role in the long-term survival of the business. In traditional corporations, boards of directors delegate these kinds of decisions to management teams or to key individuals like CEOs and others.

6. Legal Issues

When someone brings a lawsuit against your business, the job or responding typically goes to the legal department, if there is one. If there is not, a single manager often makes the decision about how to handle the matter. In the majority of cases, unless there’s a lawyer on staff, management teams hire outside law firms to officially respond to suits, no matter how complex or simple the issue is. Large corporations can afford in-house legal teams and only rarely hire outside counsel when facing a suit. It’s important for business owners to know that official documents, like annual reports and shareholder’s statements, must list pending or known legal actions against the company. Investors have a right to know whether the organization is in danger of paying a heavy financial penalty as the result of an ongoing or potential lawsuit.

7. Expansion & Growth

In organizations of all sizes, leaders are in the unique position of deciding how and whether the business will expand. This official power encompasses many small tasks like choosing new geographic markets, opting to open additional offices, exploring international expansion, hiring new employees, and more. The entire question of how large the company should become is one of the most vital of all managerial responsibilities. In large corporations, owners and boards of directors routinely set up committees to make these crucial decisions. In small and medium-sized entities, decisions about growth are often made by a founder, owners, or designated department head.

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