In deciding what makes an effective manager, there are four main factors to consider and not all of them are directly controlled by the manager concerned. They are, YOU, YOUR JOB, THE PEOPLE YOU WORK WITH and YOUR ORGANIZATION.
You
You bring your own knowledge, skills, abilities, talents and experience to the job you do as manager and these things will have an impact on how effective you can be in your role. Managers with greater experience can often remember the mistakes they made as a newbie and so appreciate how their now-seasoned skills can improve their job performance.
Your job
The actual position you hold and the work you do in its duties and responsibilities will affect your ability to be an effective manager, since it may be either a good or bad match for your skills and abilities.
The people you work with
Other employees have a major influence on managerial effectiveness. People are important if a manager wishes to achieve the work he / she needs to do. To a certain extent, effectiveness is measured by how well the manager concerned is able to motivate people and coordinate their efforts to achieve best performance. However, in many settings, a more realistic appraisal of management work is that managers are dependent upon their employees to get work done, so effective will be determined by the skills, abilities and willingness of those people.
Your organization
Organizational structure and where you are within it will affect the amount of authority you can wield and the responsibilities you are expected to be able to handle. It can also specify limits to what is achievable. Also, your organization’s corporate culture, with its unwritten norms of conduct and methods of working, will influence your ability to be an effective manager.
So it is not enough to simply improve your knowledge of management techniques to improve your effectiveness. These techniques must be tempered by an understanding of these four factors in order to become practically useful in the corporate workplace.
