Management was considered a skill and an art. People said that leaders are born. So people said that leaders could be inspired. Now people say that leaders could be trained. It is true that we could be trained and taught to become leaders. Management is a leadership skill. The best leadership in history is leadership by example. If the example is correct, then the understanding will be complete. If the example is not correct, then the understanding will not be correct.
Companies and organizations have managers and managerial levels. Smaller companies may only have one level of management and there may be only one person as manager. The largest corporations have different levels of management. There may be junior managers who deal directly with entry-level employees. There may be middle managers who interface between junior managers and senior managers. There could be a senior management team that would be at the top of the organizational structure.
If an organization is set to be larger, the management would have been planned and structured beforehand. Most of the organizations that are world famous now were not planned to be so when they started. If you take any of the giant businesses, corporate companies or organizations, most of them were not destined to become world entities. In fact, some of today’s successful businesses around the world were started for fun. We can consider the United Nations Organization as one of the few organizations that were destined to be global as they were established.
Change becomes necessary when the organization transforms from a small group of people having fun to a larger entity of importance in society. When Facebook launched, it consisted of a single administrator; the founder himself. Now it has more than 10,000 employees with different levels of management. Google started with two people. It now has more than 57,000 employees worldwide. This is the transformation that takes place when a company or organization grows.
All companies had to face the problem of transforming from a smaller stage to a larger stage. Once transformed, organizations that changed their management structure accordingly were able to survive. The management of any organization that resisted change had to pay the price of losing the organization. If an analysis is made of the organizations, companies or corporate businesses that were closed or sold, then the management would be responsible for ending such situations.
The most effective management mode is to lead by example. An army is a controlled system that works by order. One of the most important aspects in the armed forces is that the leader who gives an order also carries it out. For example, if a soldier is required to wear a uniform, then the battalion commander must do the same. If a soldier is required to conduct training exercises, the commander is also required. In other words, the military is a successful organization not because the leaders or managers have a lot of authority, but because they lead by example.
As a simple fact, if a manager keeps his table clean all the time, he can ask his subordinates to keep his table clean. There will be no opposition. Since the subordinates know that his boss always keeps his table clean, they will have no excuse or reason to give it to him. The leader gets authority from him through his exemplary behavior and not by yelling at people.
Since management is essentially leadership, you must lead by example. Top management’s duty is to make sure there are exemplary leaders in middle management. Middle managers are made up of the most sensitive links with the most critical positions. The middle management of any organization is the bridge between the workforce and the management force. If the bridge is not good, then the trip will not be fulfilled.
As organizations transform from small to large, the gap for middle management emerges. Top managers could manage 10 employees but not 100. If top managers decide to manage all staff without middle managers, it is like building a suspension bridge with no posts in the middle. It will work up to a certain length. If the bridge exceeds the optimum length, then strength would be in question.
It’s the same with a growing business. There have to be changes to address the needs of tomorrow. Most organizations fail because they try to address the problems that happened yesterday and forget to think and plan to avoid problems tomorrow. In the long run, this type of organization will have accumulated problems from the past and will also face problems in the future.
Aspects of management must change so that management can think about, anticipate and identify potential problems in the future. Then they should be able to prepare to deal with and solve the problems before the problems affect the organization. If this is not addressed by management, then day-to-day issues will keep all staff busy with problem solving. While everyone is busy trying to solve the problems, regular scheduled tasks will be missed. Missed tasks will lead to new problems in the future. Since management is unwilling to change, the same thing will happen in a loop.
Some managers do not consider themselves examples. The manager may not think that he is not supposed to be an example, but the employee will always look to the manager as an example. If the manager is not punctual, then the employee will become like the manager or dislike the manager. If people don’t like other people, it’s hard to take homework away from them. If you’re a manager and your employee doesn’t want to take tasks away from you, then you’re in trouble.
Every aspect of the manager is critical to the organization. If there are five different managers in an organization, they all need to stick together and lead by example. Employees who look at managers should have the impression of becoming like managers. In some organizations, the founders or owners make sure that the staff like management. If someone in management is spoiling the name of the entire management, that person would usually be fired.
Some say that a manager’s only job is to hire staff. I totally disagree. The only job of a manager is to manage. Management is an aspect of leadership. The best leadership is leading by example. To be a positive example, the manager has to be positive in all his qualities. If the manager is positive in every way, the employees will like the manager. If the employees like the manager, they will listen to him. If the manager asks them to do something, they will do it. A positively rated role model manager is only going to ask for something good for the organization. In the end, a positive change in management will positively change the organization.