The Six Basic Functions of a Manager

Learn these and make it part of your management habits.

• Establish objectives
• Organize
• Motivate
• Develope
• Communicate
• Measure

1. Establish objectives
   • Make all your objectives clear to yourself first. What is that you want from something that you’re into. Never underestimate the effect and significance of you not knowing and understanding your objectives. This gives your result. Innama ‘amalu binniyat, wa innama likullim ri immanawa.
2. Organize
   • Now start to place things at the right places. Always, and always place yourself at the right spot. Somewhere you know you can do best and you really can do.
   • Grab the tasks to reach the objectives first to your acknowledgement. Which is more important than which? Decide. List them down if you have to. Make it go in order, don’t just list.
   • Determine all resources you have access to, as many resources as a lot.  From the labours you have, to the beans you owe. Judge your man by their commitment first, then their talents and abilities. This will ensure your team is aiming for the same objectives and through the same path.  Wa a’iddulahum mas tata’thum min quwwah.
3. Motivate
   • First yourself. Why would you do this? What benefit you get from this thing you’re into? Convince yourself to the peak of the mountain, to the deepest of the sea. This will be your biggest driving force throughout your journey.
   • Then your people. What good will they get? Remember that people are equally intersted in what they’ll get with fear of what they’ll lose if they fail. So balance right, I mean to the right.
4. Develope people
   • Again, put yourself higher first. Not because of your rank, but because you’re.
   • This might be the hardest part. Never think people are good enough for their work, but trust them that they are commited to be one. Make way for them to get through, allow time, allow mistakes, accept apologies.
   • Educate what they need be educated. Here’s your role. You manage their path, to get to your objectives. Extra work, extra effort, for you. It’s not just talking, it’s working as well. Know the quanta of your tarbiyyah and their tarbiyyah.
   • Make them understand and believe, not just know. Later on, you don’t have to guide them all again. Here’s the tricky part.
5. Communicate
   • You’re the pioneer. A leader is always the pioneer. You start something, the rest would follow. You start talking nice and decent, everybody would follow. You start caring, everybody would.
   • It is supposed to to be telling the state of the situation. The true state. Every gesture counts. So you don’t have to be telling them you’re mad, just face off, and walk fast.
   • This would amplify the atmosphere of work you’re putting people into. You’re circulating emotions more than you know. You set the weather, they work in it. If you make it cloudy, then they’ll look down, and they might not see the path clearly. If it rains, then they’ll hide and shed. Idfa’ billati hiya ahsanu.
6. Measure and analyze
   • What is your measuring method? Sometimes numbers are not the main concern, it’s the quality. All things subjective need to be assessed as well.
   • What keeps you up to date that you’re on the right track? Know your sensors and set a feedback loop for your team.
   • Make your team aware of their products, not others. This is common sense. Know yourself first, then others.

So here’s the beginning. Soon we’ll delve into more specific chapters of things we should manage well.

-Winnie-the-Pooh on Management, Roger E. Allen-