What is the management function that means leading?

Every day, managers are tasked with leading and inspiring the people who work under them. This includes planning for team success, and fulfilling what it takes run a business. Five key functions are regarded as the ways that management should lead and interact with team members. From planning to review, the more specific management is, the more effective the business is in achieving goals.

Tip

The five key functions of managing are strategic planning, organizing resources, staffing, directing activities and controlling the company's success.

The Strategic Planning of Actions

Strategic planning is the process of evaluating the goals of the company and then setting a course for success. This function evaluates the existing activities and goals. Managers then schedule activities that will lead to achieving those goals. Leaders tend to be more strategic: they must become problem solvers able to see the big picture while also identifying specific things that affect overall success. For example, if the goal is to improve the time it takes for customers to get their order fulfilled, then an operational strategy is executed to improve product fulfillment.

Organizing Resources to Achieve Goals

The organizing function brings resources together to achieve the goals established in the planning function. Resources include materials, personnel and financial backing. Leaders need to identify what activities are necessary, assign those activities to specific personnel, effectively delegating tasks. Leaders need to coordinate tasks to keep resources moving efficiently toward goals. It is important to prioritize which resources are essential at any given time. For example, if more inventory is needed but the company doesn't have the financial resources to obtain the inventory, then the priority is to tackle the financial need.

Putting the Right Talent in the Right Place

When a business is short-handed, it cripples the company's ability to serve customers, and it also overwhelms existing staff. Management needs to identify key staff positions, and to ensure that the proper talent is serving that specific job duty. Once the right staffing structure is established, leaders need training, professional development, pay rates and monitoring performance. Effective leaders are able to develop talent and identify those ready for promotion.

Guiding and Directing Activities

Directing activities is a key function. Letting staff know what needs to be done, and also by when is a responsibility of managers. However, bosses tell people what to do, while leaders motivate people to contribute in meaningful ways. The directing function requires leaders to do more than simply give orders, even though tasks must be completed for business success. This function begins with supervising subordinates while simultaneously motivating teams through guided leadership communicated in clear ways.

Controlling Success Systems

Controlling systems refers to all the processes that leaders create to monitor success. Sports coaches have a saying, "Winners keep score," meaning that winners know where they are and know what is necessary to achieve a goal. This business function requires leaders to establish performance standards, measure actual performance and compare the metrics to determine anomalies.

For example, a sales leader is focused on more than only the final sales numbers; he considers the leading activities such as the number of minimum pitches and outbound calls. Leaders review the data and make adjustments in processes, policies, training or personnel to address failures based on that data. Winning leaders don't look at poor performance as failures but as opportunities to solve a problem that gets the desired results.

To maximize efficiency and to achieve organizational goals, leading to business management plays a key role. Guiding the subordinates towards the goal and to ensure their growth is one of the many functions leading covers. To justify the importance of leading in a concern of business management, the following points are discussed.

Guidance and Development

Leading in business management is to initiate the project according to plan, but to ensure its success the employees must be effective and efficient at their work. It is a leaders’ responsibility to ensure that the workforce is doing their part of the job properly with full knowledge. If needed, leaders might have to help the employee in their respective tasks. Leading a subordinated and providing real-time support helps the employee grow and ensure the best performance in their working area.

Motivating Employees

Motivating employees and bringing the best out of them is one of the prime aspects of leading in an organization.  If employees are motivated according to their needs, they try to be more efficient with their work and they work more effectively. A leader leads the employees by keeping them motivated so that they can do their part of the job properly. Motivation can be either authoritarian or participative and a leader has to decide which one to choose according to organizational culture and employee’s cooperative behavior history.

Initiating the first step

Planning a structure that will be followed to achieve the organization’s goal and leading the employees towards it, is an important aspect. Leading the employees properly plays the most important role in the organization. An ideal leader has to decide whether the steps that are taking are necessary or not. The leader can lead their employee towards the organizational goal then the business will simply collapse. Good communication, enough knowledge, and a clear view of the organizational goal can help a leader initiate the first step of planning but leading them the whole time and ensuring success is more important. A leader decides what needs to be done, by whom it is going to be done, and what tasks are included in the plan and leads them. A skilled workforce can only help to achieve only if they are being led properly.

Building Morale and satisfaction

Being confident and having a sense of satisfaction in the back of the mind helps the employees to achieve efficiency and effectiveness. It will lead to the organizational goal and an ideal leader will use this by leading them. A leader should try to build a sense of satisfaction that the employees are missing and building morale within them will turn them into assets for the organization. And a leaders’ job is to use those assets and lead the employee to the betterment of the company. But the employees can get frustrated by the workload and new challenges. Leading the employees and helping them through that by building confidence in them and ensuring the business goal is an important aspect.

Ensuring Proper Work Environment

For a stable and sound growth of the organization, a proper work environment plays a vital role. Leading the subordinates in an environment where the workforce is comfortable can help achieve business goals. To ensure the best results, proper leading has to be implied. A proper work environment can help with the comfortability of the employees and leading them efficiently is more essential. A great leader is a person who listens to their workforce’s struggles and leads them to a close to a perfect solution for that particular problem. The employees must be treated with proper respect and having a work-friendly environment where their voice can be heard intrigues employees and puts more effort into the organization’s goal and growth.

Coordination Among All

An organizational goal can only be achieved if the whole workforce and management are on the same page. Being clear about the words, conveying the right message, and holding confidential information away from the workforce are some of the most important aspects. While leading, this must be made sure that proper coordination among the workforce is being ensured. A proper synchronization among the organization can be achieved only if effective coordination is present within the organizational structure.

In Conclusion

Leading is a very important function of management. It always helps to minimize deficiency and achieve organizational objectives. The above points justified the importance of leading in an organization.


Related:

  • Importance of organizing in small business
  • The Big Five Personality Traits
  • SWOT Analysis of Apple Inc
  • Leadership Qualities, Skills, and Style of Jeff Bezos
  • Small Business Ideas in India – Home Based, Low Investment, and Online Startups

References:

  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leading
  • http://www.managementstudyguide.com/importance_of_leadership.htm
  • http://www.ceoinstitute.com/leadership-training/business-leadership/

What is the management function that means leading?

Faizul Haque

Sheikh Faizul Haque is an internet entrepreneur and the founder of The Strategy Watch; Graduated from North South University with a double major in Accounting & Finance in Bangladesh.

With a strong interest in developing and improving Business Strategy and to Conduct Business Analysis.

What level of management is leading?

Top-level managers are those who represent the highest level of executive management. Top-level managers often have the word “chief” in their job titles, such as chief executive officer, chief financial officer, and so on. These managers help sustain the company's growth and execute plans over the long term.

What is leading and management?

Management consists of controlling a group or a set of entities to accomplish a goal. Leadership refers to an individual's ability to influence, motivate, and enable others to contribute toward organizational success. Influence and inspiration separate leaders from managers, not power and control.

What is leadership in management?

What Is Leadership? Leadership in business is the capacity of a company's management to set and achieve challenging goals, take fast and decisive action when needed, outperform the competition, and inspire others to perform at the highest level they can.