Management Best Practices

There are two broad streams of activities and responsibilities we can see in an organization. One is management and the other is technical. 

Management is the core function of leading, managing and growing an organization. It could be managing a business, it could be managing a project or it could be managing any other kind of initiatives within the organization. Management team will be responsible for overall wellbeing and health of the organization as well as of all the stakeholders. 

In order for us to manage with excellence, we not only need to use our own skills and knowledge, we also need to use the experiences and knowledge of others in the organization. There is a greater need to use all the collective past lessons learnt effectively and there is a need to ensure that we do not repeat the same mistakes. This is where organizations lay immense emphasis on creating best practices, which will serve as ready-made wisdom to do a job well.

Best practise originate from our past experiences. A best practice is a technique or methodology that has been developed through experience and research, and has proven to reliably lead to a desired result. A culture to using the best practices in any field is a culture to using all the knowledge and technology at one's disposal to ensure success.

Management is a very wide subject consisting of various domains such as leadership, communication, team building, finance, marketing, human resources, inventory and logistics etc. Each domain is huge by itself and will have its own vast set of best practices. 

Best practices in management can be very generic and wide. In this article we will focus on some broad level management best practices which are practiced by business leaders worldwide.

1. Staying connected – It is extremely important for a business leader to engage with all stakeholders both internal and external. Regular communications with the team, the clients and the investors group will help in achieving the required cohesiveness and buy-in.
2. Walking the talk – Great business leaders will always lead by example. They will show new paths. They walk the talk. They are accessible to the team and adopt transparent management style.
3. Building a performing team – A great team can only help to achieve the goals. Hence it is important to develop a highly motivated, cohesive team which operates in an environment of trust and mutual respect. Good efforts are encouraged and rewarded
4. Setting goals and targets – It is important to set realistic and achievable goals for the team. Setting unrealistic goals which unachievable can quickly demotivate the team and will become detrimental to overall management strategy. 
5. Strategic planning – Long term planning and vision will be critical for achieving greater results. Great business leaders are visionary people.
6. Measuring performance – While a good leader focuses on people, they also focus on monitoring the performance of the team. Performance measurement becomes an integral part of the management function. Ability to provide timely feedback and helping the team members to improve their performance equally important. 
7. Raising the bar – In today’s ever changing and competitive business world, it is necessary to regularly introspecting our own best performance and also that of our competitors. This should further motivate us to raise our future performance standards. Benchmarking with the best will help in continuous improvements.

Conclusion:

Best practices are practices which have been practiced already and have proven to help achieve the desired results. Hence organizations must invest on creating management best practices. Best practices thus will become a rich library of readily usable assets full of proven methods for the organization.