The 40 Hats all Managers Wear – Plus One
Effective managers control chaos and deliver value at the same time.
Managing is the great opportunity and challenge in all organizations. Fundamentally, managers get things done. The more effective they are the more useful and profitable businesses become; the more societies prosper.
Hats off to the individuals that make businesses run.
40 functions managers perform:
- Plan
- Organize
- Direct
- Control
- Staff
- Lead
- Coordinate
- Report
- Motivate
- Resolve conflicts
- Communicate up
- Communicate down
- Communicate laterally
- Communicate with guests
- Communicate with vendors and suppliers
- Communicate with the community
- Run meetings
- Diagnose
- Correct
- Confront
- Discipline
- Counsel
- Encourage
- Inspire
- Develop
- Hire
- Terminate
- Promote
- Reward
- Implement
- Schedule
- Prioritize
- Delegate
- Measure
- Adapt
- Budget
- Negotiate
- Optimize
- Innovate
- Standardize
Who wants it:
After creating this daunting list, I started wondering who wants to be a manager? People committed to make a difference, that’s who. People who want to better themselves and others. Individuals that love a challenge.
Take just a minute, hold your head up, and give yourself a pat on the back. You make businesses work.
The first four:
The first four functions on this list are frequently identified as the four fundamental functions of management.
Mintzberg indicates managers fulfill three fundamental roles:
- Interpersonal roles
- Informational roles
- Decision-making roles.
Peter Drucker says managers perform five tasks:
- Set Objectives
- Organize
- Motivate and Communicate
- Measure
- Develop People
Plus one:
I left one function off the list of 40 hats all managers wear. Tomorrow I’ll begin a short series on the manager as coach. I’m basing the series on my conversation with coaching experts Bob Hancox and Russell Hunter. Effective coaching enables higher achievement through others.
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Can you add any management functions to the list of 40?
In your opinion, what are the most important functions of management?
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I guess it wouldn’t be a surprise that I would add conflict management as one of the functions of managers.
The most important function of managers from my perspective, is communicate.
Hi Cinnie,
There’s a place for everyone… even you conflict resolution types!
🙂
Thankful for your contribution,
Dan
So true Cinnie, and that communication comes in many forms, especially through the behaviour we model as managers vs what we say, write, email, etc.
The main function I relate to a manager is its correlation to an Ambassador.
A good illustration or metaphor goes a long way to communicate an idea… cheers
Agree with Cinnie — push information as far in every direction as you can. Communication is closely tied to coordination. Without constant coordination, everything becomes chaos.
I’d add that it’s up to the manager to ensure that everyone understands what right looks like, both by his/her example and by the vision he/she sets. That’s probably covered by combinations of your 40.
Hi Greg,
Great addition…define what success looks like. Most people want to succeed so explain what success looks like. Bingo!
Best,
Dan
I might add “protect” as a # 41.
One thing I’ve seen good managers do is protect their people from negative outside forces, such as “idiocy from on high” (to quote Bob Sutton), extra busywork requested by outsiders, excessive requests for their time, or other similar things.
Excellent addition. The best managers are leaders, and leaders always look out for their people.
Ka Ching!
Wow, this is quite a list, Dan. The one thing I would add is clarify. A good manager often is clarifying information that comes from top management. That clarity helps people to better to connect to their role which helps them feel more secure and hopefully, more motivated.
Jim
Hi Jim,
If the list gets much longer, we’ll find all the managers in the house curled up in the fetal position, sucking their thumbs. 😉
I’m thankful for your regular contributions,
Dan
One thing I tell parents-be the example you want your children to be.
The same thing applies in busness. If there are traits you want to develop in your people, develop them in yourself. There’s nothing worse than a boss coming across as a liar or hypocritical. It affects your integrity, and your integrity is everything!
Absolutely agree!!!
Excellent point, Sherrie! Leading by example is one of the best ways I know to teach good behavior! I also agree that integrity is very important in business as well as in life.
Dear Dan,
I think all the points have been covered. However, I would like to add some points. They are risk management and improvisation. Managers need to take calculated risk. They also need to manage their business, product and portfolio in such a way that that minimize risk. Managers also diversify risk. For this they need to diversify their product and services strategically. Improvisation is again the very useful to manage resources and business within available resources and thus minimizing cost and saving revenue.
I think the most important functions of management are: Integrating, encouraging, aligning and retaining. Succession planning is the most important part of management today. Scenario planning is again most important. Managers need to integrate all resources of input to achieve goal. Managers need to encourage people and align them towards organizational goal to achieve goal. Retain employees by creating trust and the most important is to be ready to create more leaders under you.
Agree and this is awesome list ….
This list is great. You intentionally left off Coach which I think is reasonable. I also don’t see Mentor, which perhaps will be covered in Mentor.
In that same vein, I would put Leader functions (Lead, Inspire) into a separate list. I see Leading and Managing as two separate activities which are sometimes performed by the same person (and sometimes by different people in the organization).
Thanks for another great post.
This sounds like beeing a mom
yes the greatest example of a manager/leader is a MOM!
Great list, Dan.
I appreciate the positive attitude toward management in general. Re: Geoffrey’s comment that leadership and management can also be performed, but perhaps require separate lists: I believe that the best managers also serve as leaders for their teams. Setting direction, inspiring, developing people, and on and on…these are leadership tasks in which great managers excel.
Thanks for the encouragement today!
Take care,
David
David,
Thanks for your comments. You called out a really good point I had left out. I agree the best managers also are usually great leaders. I think that is because we value highly-capable “Manager Leaders.”
But I see value in making a distinction between management and leadership because of more common situations I see: good managers who make poor leaders, and good leaders who make poor managers. In these cases, understanding what someone is good and poor at can help the team and organization. A good manager who is a poor leader might need extra leadership help (from within the team perhaps), while a good leader who is a poor manager might need extra management help (also possibly from within the team). Of course, I come from an IT background where there is often a big gap between manager and leader.
I also find it useful to make a distinction for those cases where the two come into conflict. That is, sometimes what is best for the team or organization comes into conflict with what is best for the employee. I usually consider the leader to be watching out most for the team and organization, while the manager is usually watching out most for the employee. The best Manager Leaders are those who can do both, and who can successfully walk that fine line between the needs of the two.
I am also willing to admit that I am using the terms manager and leader in ways which may not match everyone’s definitions. But in reading a lot of management and leadership books and blogs (etc) I see them as two different (but closely related, and tightly coupled) disciplines, whatever the terms used.
Thanks again.
Geoffrey
Agree with Geoffrey on this. I think leadership (i.e vision-setting, motivating, enabling) is less common that managerial skill, which is more administrative and less visionary. Most good leaders are at least competent managers, but I know many managers who are mediocre leaders at best.
Dan,
This is a great list, but from my point of view you have missed maybe the most important (I may have missed it in one of your reader comments).
I have always found the task of the Listener to be right at the top of the list. Without listening, a manager just might never know what is really going on.
Howard
Moisturizer? (sorry, couldn’t resist)…but semi-seriously, Humorist.
Maintaining a sense of humor in the face of a range of challenges is essential for managers.
Juggler could also be a figurative function that managers need.
figurative function??? Na he/she needs to be a proficient juggler with a smile!
Love this! You hit the nail on the “hat”.
One more could be added which is create ownership. In the manager creating ownership in the followers he/she builds enthusiasm for the vision and the follower now senses a belonging to the overall goal. Nothing motivates more than owning a piece of the vision to which I can thrive and share in the success. If a manager wants to retain great followers he/she must have the courage and confidence to give away a portion of the vision and allow the follower to blossom!
Nice post.
I have wondered why experience from being a mom (or dad) isn’t more appreciated as a qualification for good leader and manager.
After being a full time mom and when applying for jobs this was a weird topic – almost a tabu. It seems to make people feel insecure and even somewhat uncomfortable – why? I have my theories about this. Ofcourse this is a topic that touch all of us and our hearts. Where I come from it’s important to work outside the home – all the time. There is no doubt – women – all over the globe – needs to be independent THEN and after that – interdependent as I belive most women already ARE good at being interdependent. Therefor it’s more important for us women first to be independent and secondly – interdependent.
For too long women have been under-payed, underestimated and neglected as a resource and as entrepreneurs. All over the globe. We can’t afford this and for so many reasons! Our daughters (and sons) deserve better. Becoming a mother is a part of our lives just as becoming a father is a part of most mens lives. Let us be whole… let us participate in society as whole persons – using a bigger part of our brains. We must take our experiences also from the home arena with us to the corporate arena as it makes us even better managers and leaders. I belive that when exercised wisely it distinguishes the exellent leader from the mediocre. My hope for the future is that it will be more legitimate to be a leader with experience from other areans – like the home arena and not just for “the corporate man”. This will be benefical for both the company and us as individuals.
The scandinavian modell is not perfect. It’s good but can be much better. It would be interesting to hear what the readers of “leadership freak” think about this.
Anne, I like your correlation between mom/dad and leadership/manager. Why organizations do not consider this a viable training ground for leadership positions is a mystery. All the facets for leadership are learned most often in the home IF it is a good home of teaching/learning. The beginning stages of leadership are learned by an individual by watching and observing good parents in action. Our society has down graded the home arena because we have lost sense of our priorities as a nation.
I think I would add “compete” to this list. Managers compete with their competition externally, and with their fellow managers internally for company resource