Basic Management Skills - What Makes a Good Manager?

Basic management skills are necessary to run a small business. Some business owners believe that leading vs managing is most important. In reality, you need to be able to both lead and manage.

What makes a good manager? There are definite business management styles and skills to focus on; specifically for small business owners. If you're the owner or manager of a small business, it's important to understand what those basic management skills are and to try to incorporate them into your own behaviors. Why? Because some skills are more successful than others and because some styles will engage your employees, while others will dis-engage them.

Business management skills such as planning, decision making, problem solving, controlling and directing, and measuring and reporting are needed for the daily operation.

Basic Management Skills - What Makes a Good Manager?

Using their small business plan, effective managers direct the business operation. Communications, benchmarking, tracking and measuring are tactics and strategies that they use to check their direction, to adjust the plan (if necessary), and to move the business forward. Good managers act to achieve the desired results; and they manage people and resources to get where they want to go.

Understanding what makes a good manager, means understanding what motivates employees.  How do you build an environment and culture that encourages employees to participate? How do you increase employee productivity and employee satisfaction; simultaneously? How do you recruit the best talent, and then keep them? How do you train your staff to solve problems, make decisions, and involve others in the process? These are just some of the challenges, and responsibilities, of managing.

As a manager, you need to understand what the common business management styles are (autocratic, paternalistic, democratic, and passive are the most common styles). And you need to understand what your style is, and how that style affects business results.

Four Business Management Styles:

Autocratic: The manager makes all the decisions; a "command and control" (militaristic) management style. Focus is on business; doesn't want any personal 'stuff' to get in the way. The benefit is that decisions are made quickly. The cost is in high employee turn-over as employees find this style difficult, and stressful. Paternalistic: The manager makes all decisions (or most of them) but focuses on what's best for employees. The benefit is that employees feel the business is taking care of them. The cost is that employees don't take care of business - they are uninvolved and have little at risk. Democratic: The manager wants input from the whole 'team' and majority rules. Often good decisions are made and employees feel involved in the business (the benefit to this style) but the process is very slow and you can't always make everyone happy. Passive: The manager abdicates responsibility to the employees; and calls it delegation. The benefit is that employees often step forward and learn in this environment. The cost is that the direction is scattered and there can be numerous false starts because there is no real manager.

Managers typically use more than one style, depending on the situation. If brainstorming creative new product ideas is today's focus, then the manager may want to use a democratic or passive style. If a decision about keeping or firing an under-performing employee must be made, the manager may need to use an autocratic or paternalistic style (hopefully not a democratic or passive style).

In most small businesses, the business owner is also the manager and the leader. In your business, make sure that you have a good understanding of your own business management styles, skills and qualities and learn how to control them and use them as necessary.

Basic Management Skills - What Makes a Good Manager?
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To understand more about what makes a good manager, or the difference between leading vs managing, it is good to focus on the qualities of an effective manager as compared to the qualities of an effective leader.
Kris Bovay is the owner of Voice Marketing Inc, a business and marketing services company. Kris has 25 years of experience in leading large, medium and small businesses. For more pricing strategies and other small business resources and services go to the more-for-small-business website.
Copyright 2008 - 2009 Voice Marketing Inc.

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Understand 4 Basic Management Styles to Be an Effective Manager

In the corporate world, there needs to have a formal structure that organizes the tasks to manage the corporate office in its controllable manner. It is often ruled by a hierarchy of organization structure. This structure is commonly termed as organization chart.

 In order to be effective as a manager at various level in the organization structure, he or she are often challenged by work environment. How does his or her management style help to manage the situation. The four basic Management Styles is listed below:-

1)  Autocratic Style

Understand 4 Basic Management Styles to Be an Effective Manager

Perhaps is the oldest style in managing a group of people to get things done. This style of management is very obvious in the olden days of slavery where only the "master" give command and the slaves just follow. However, it is by no means the is a slavery type of management.

If you pay attention to this style, what it indicates is that there is always a one way communication where the "commander give out order and expect it to get done without any question. Even until today, this style of managing still exist and effective in environment such as arm forces, emergency situation, crisis management etc where there is not time to wait or entertaining any feedback or suggestion.  And autocratic style of management is most effective.

2)  Democratic Style

Just the opposite to autocratic management style, tasks carry out only after getting people's opinion and rule by a majority vote.  A very obvious example is a general election of a country, election of certain official in an organization of society. However, a democratic management style can and often apply in business when the manager makes decision based on the agreement of the majority. 

However, the style of management is normally guided by the manager who has made certain evaluation of the possible solutions and let the employees pick one among the best options. 

3)  Participative Style

This style of management is quite similar to the democratic type of management in getting opinion from the mass employees. However, the decision is not necessary follow the majority vote. What it does is to seek feedback and opinion from employee and then make a decision on his own.

4)  Laissez Faire

This style of management is a free hand management style where managers do not make decision nor interfere. It just let the issue develop by itself whether to the better or worst. This type of management style is best to handle rumor. for an example, a conflict among two or more parties is best let the parties involved settle on their own.

Now that you have any idea the four common management styles, you need to evaluated their differences and apply them.

Understand 4 Basic Management Styles to Be an Effective Manager
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Do you want to learn which management style is best? If so, click Management styles

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