Basic Organization and Management

Great leadership is a lifestyle, not a technique. It seems to be an irony in the field of organization and management but it makes these entities meaningful. Leadership is a gift then that will help boast to the morale and goals of certain organization. This leadership may work hand in hand possibly to make and uplift the organization with the aid of management. Management may define as the process that managers follow in order to accomplish organizational goals. Yes, this is true. But this statement is an old tradition, an apollonian culture, so structured, boring. With that, we can still avoid this dilemma by putting something within that will provide and create an environment conducive for humanistic in nature and approach. Thus, management is the process of reaching organizational goals by working with and through people and other organizational resources. This only be possible if the organization itself manifests harmonious relationship and collaboration among people who meet in certain situation with common interest and goal. It upholds the idea of proliferating the concept of synergy for them to attain goals in one, easy way. Moreover, it gives direction and pathway towards its ends – efficient output. It also posits the personal communication needed in cultivating and nourishing such relationship and keeping them on track.

            How this effective leadership possible? It is a paradoxical statement that this entity is a lifestyle and not a technique. It is due to the fact that in management it can be both a science and an art. We perform creativity which manifests art and being systematic to be a science. Because of this process it becomes scientific in a sense. It is also commendable that in management, purpose must properly define. Whether you are planning a major project at work or thinking about where you want to be in ten years, a clear purpose is your true north by which to navigate as conditions change. It is a way also to know your world. Continuously seek to understand what’s happening in the world, the economy, your industry and even in your organization. Recognize what motivates people to act. And most important know yourself – and the world around you. Try to concentrate. Focus. Set your mind. Shut out distractions. Set personal boundaries. Don’t let people steal your time and don’t give it away easily. This lifestyle will surely lead you to the acme of success, of reaching more heights and creating more and higher dreams not only for your own sake but also to the organization as a whole.

             Every day you have to decide who’s going to pay for your leadership – you or your people. To do such, you must know the shape of your sheep to make sure they are in the right fold. This will not only refer to people involved but also to the areas wherein people are involved. These areas of management may identify the distinctive and peculiar yet inter-related of giving formal assignments of authority and responsibility to job holders. Indentifying such circumstances will make people delegation an effective and efficient way in overcoming any problem in the way towards its ultimate goal. These areas must go hand in hand to accomplish organizational goals as much as in efficient way. Finance is more inclined and assigned on areas which the primary concern is finance or money matters. Marketing is designed to guide managers in getting products or services to customers and in encouraging customers to buy. It includes the products, the place, the price and the promotion. Operation or production involves the activities necessary to produce and deliver a service as well as a physical product or activities such as purchasing, transportation and other operations from procurement of raw materials until a product is available to the buyer. Human resource is at the center of such endeavors because it is indeed in need in all areas of management. It involves people, public relation and employees connected or part and parcel of an organization. These areas are being encircled or enclosed by ethical standard that serves as a guiding principle in performing specific tasks.

            Knowing these areas, it will be a good start of making demarcation on job descriptions and limitations. It is more acceptable to focus on one thing at a time. And this is present in this subject matter. Multitasking is creating when you are going back and forth between complicated assignments or projects, it is impossible to focus properly each one. This idea that I have read from one book, it is also called “task switching”. It is an action that itself requires time and energy. According to the study, depending on how many tasks you are juggling, you could be losing 20 to 40 percent of your time, because you have to reengage your focus and thoughts.

Both life and work requires a certain amount of juggling. This makes life an extraordinary. Few days play out in an orderly, linear sequence. In business context, speaking on the phone to a client or colleagues while you’re reading a report or typing an e-mail might not rest you that much. However, doing so while you’re preparing a report for your department might be possible to happen. At the very least it will slow you down and result in subpar work. To increase your focus and performance when concentration is critical, cut down on the multitasking addiction. Organize your work so that you can do one thing at a time and do it well. The payoff will be substantial. Indeed, indentifying different areas of management is a fundamental task in ensuring the efficiency of these areas so as to achieve certain goals to its desired perspective.

 Knowing the conditions of your flock is a necessary endeavor that a manager should manifest. A manager with necessary management skills will probably perform well be relatively successful. One without necessary skills will probably perform poorly and be relatively unsuccessful. Keep your eyes and ears open, question and follow through proves the healthy communication and relationship brought by this kind of positive intention. Making some points to distinguish specific roles, different levels of management is more possibly the more effectiveness and efficiency of achieving goals. On this way you can follow the status of your people as well as the status of work.

Top management is in need much of the conceptual skills wherein it involves the ability to see the organization as a whole. On the other hand, in this level of management only little emphasis is given to technical skills. Consequently, the bottom management who supervise the operational activities of the organization is in need much of the technical skills which are mostly related to working with processes. As one moves from lower level to upper level management, conceptual skills become more important and technical skills less important. The supportive rationale is that as managers advance in organization, they become less involved with guiding the organization as a whole. However, middle management located at the mid-layer of the management level needs much human skills with equal distribution of technical and conceptual skills. This becomes a very helpful to the management levels for it mediates and acts as the bridge between top-management and bottom-management. We can assess that human skills, however, are extremely important to managers at top, middle and bottom levels. It is indeed that the common denominator of all management levels, after all, is people.

            This way you can get to know your flock, one sheep at a time. It is a way to keep in touch or stay in touch with your sheep. No matter how high up in your organization you are, look for ways to get in touch with your company’s clients and customers, or with your group for easy delegation of tasks and work assignments.

Letting your sheep know and identify with you and your organization. From this point of reference, the members of the organization will not be lost in the line. You must share same vision and setting same goals and objectives to avoid conflicts and problems to occur. This is particularly happened in planning. Planning has a big impact on the accomplishing of the organizational goals. It is not something that can be attained just in a snap of a finger. It is planned well. This would be the primary foundation in managing an organization. Planning involves choosing tasks that must be performed to attained organizational goals, outlining how the task must be performed and indicating when they should be performed. Planning focuses on attaining goals that is why as early as possible, planning objectives and sets of strategies are being settled. This will serve as a guiding principle or direction to the success of the organizational goals. These goals and objectives serve as a motivational force that motivates the people to act. Consequently, it must be SMARTER – Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, Time bounded, Exciting and Rewarding.

            Before setting any important goal, it helps to look at the big picture. Your goals will likely change over time. That’s expected. Just don’t lose sight of them. Looking at the big picture will help you understand where you are today- and how to get where you want to be tomorrow. It is also a concrete representation of having an initial step towards making organizational activities to build trust among your followers by modeling authenticity, integrity and compassion. Subsequently, you may define the cause for your people and tell them where they fit in. In starting the plan, you yourself as a leader must provide a proper and distinct boundary between your professional and personal life. On the other hand, vis-à-vis to that argument I may agree that leadership is more effective not just professional but more importantly by personal. Thus, this may lead in delivering strategic value in planning.

            The structure and strategic design portrays a great importance as well as the entities needed for the realization of ones objectives. This is possible and part of organizing. This makes its goal and consequently the primary foundation of its structure. Tasking, giving of information, assigning of roles to be acted upon and even willingness to accept responsibility and accountability are expected and seemed to be a good work, motivation and organize structure towards the accomplishment of its goal. Its design is made to clarify what to do, who is to do, which task and who is responsible for the results. The proper adherence of dissemination is much important. This would be done in order to renounce obstacles to performance caused by confusion and uncertainty of assignment and to furnish decision making and communication networks reflecting and supporting organizational objectives.  Indeed, because of this confrontation and treatment in handling such enterprise, surely, it will build a dynamic organization. In this way, keeping your people well informed would be a tremendous task. Another thing is that by infusing every position with importance is a challenge to satisfy the needs of the followers and of the organization as well. With this, the expectation of achieving the goals is on its highest degree of potentiality.

            Nevertheless, leading is concerned primarily with people within the organization. It involves in guiding the activities of organization members in appropriate directions. An appropriate direction is any direction that helps the organization move forward toward goal attainment. It is also a way to inform the organization where you’re going, getting out in front and keeping your flock on the move. Notwithstanding, the value of confidence is being developed. Thus, makes them free to choose certain actions for the betterment of the group but make sure they know where the fence is, the limitations. Don’t confuse boundaries with bridles. When your people get in trouble, go and get them out. Even small misunderstandings can snowball into conflicts. It’s up to you not to let these snowballs turn into avalanches. The minute you see the confusion or conflict about to snowball into something bigger, face it head-on. Avoid blaming and finger – pointing, which only make things unused. It’s a manifestation of shirking responsibility which somehow akin to what we sinners, human being, possessing with. We should therefore avoid such deportment in carrying our responsibility to avoid conflicts.

            This predicament of the organization is not yet finished. Still, it is need to instill in moving forward and going upward – pursuing more heights, striding more opportunities and painting more innovations for its sustainability. That is why controlling is present. Controlling is an ongoing process. Managers gather information that measures recent performance within the organization. He compares present performance to preestablished performance standards and from this comparison; he determines whether the organization should be modified to meet pre-established standards. Thus, in doing so, it may enliven the organization into the rod of correction. It is a continuing process, after all, that in everything may happen. Stand in the gap and fight for your sheep. Approach discipline as a teaching opportunity. Regularly, inquire about your people’s progress.  This makes you to become one with the people and of the organization. The visions you shared are the strings that attached within you and the group.

            Nothing is more frustrating than reaching the finish line of an organizational goal and discovering that somewhere in the journey you took a left instead of a right and lost your way. This shows the ups and downs and different encounters we have living in the organization. I emphasized living for the leadership is a lifestyle not just a technique. All the vicissitudes and tribulations are life’s lesson to be learned and to experience. The point is, what ever and whoever we or the other, just believe and have a heart. We are not just an embodied subjectivity but we are rational, spiritual being is a sense. This lifestyle is not only for management as it discussed but more applicable to life for its nature is life per se.