Name: High Output Management
Rating: 4.2 (187 reviews)
Author: Andrew S. Grove

What’s in it for me? Learn what successful management entails.

Management seems like an overwhelming task. Managers are expected to be everywhere at every time, to listen and speak to their staff, to plan and organize workflows, to bring the best out of their employees and enhance overall performance. But how can one person master so many tasks?

In these blinks, you’ll find out what the key responsibilities of a manager are and what you need to know about your employees and your role. You will learn how to collect the information you need to make the right decisions, how to motivate your team and how to make them perform well.

You’ll also learn

what management has to do with serving breakfast;
how to find out quickly whether an employee lacks skill or motivation; and
why managers may take a leaf out of a sports coach’s playbook.

Managing a company is like serving breakfast – it requires a sound understanding of production processes.

It might seem an odd idea, but working as a waiter will perfectly prepare you to manage the production processes of a company.

How come?

Well, managing production processes is actually just like serving breakfast. For instance, if your job is to deliver a three-minute boiled egg, toast and coffee, you’re already facing the essential requirements of production. You need to respond to demand by delivering your product according to a given schedule while meeting expectations for quality and keeping down costs.

To succeed at this complicated series of tasks you need to keep the first question of production in mind: which step is the hardest to complete?

When it comes to serving breakfast, it’s definitely boiling the egg as it takes the longest time. All the remaining steps should be planned around the time needed to accomplish this task.

Then, once you’ve identified the priority step in production, it’s your job as a manager to find the most cost-effective way to use the resources at your disposal.

Imagine a waiter has to stand in line every morning to use the toaster while his customer waits for her breakfast. How can he resolve the problem? His options are to ask a coworker for help, prepare toast in advance or buy another toaster.

Essentially, managers are there to identify and solve these kinds of bottlenecks, and their solutions include hiring a larger workforce, increasing inventory or buying more equipment. But remember, all of these choices cost money, and the task of a manager is to balance them in the most cost-effective way.

But that’s not all; managers also need to detect problems. That’s because problems arise all the time in production; to control damage, it’s essential to find and fix them as early as possible.

For example, if the kitchen ends up with a bunch of rotten eggs, it’d be better to find that out when they’re in the fridge and before they’re being boiled or tipped onto a customer’s plate. This means it’s essential for managers to monitor carefully all production processes.

Managers need to know how to select production indicators and extract important information from them.

Naturally, a manager can’t be everywhere at once. To get a comprehensive overview, a manager needs to rely on good measurements.

To do so, she should choose at least five indicators that are presented to her every morning upon arrival at work.

A manager holds many responsibilities and her success depends on that of her team.

It might not always seem like it, but management is a team effort. This is why a manager isn’t just rated on their personal skills and individual performance, but also the working achievements of her team.

For instance, if a manager does well at planning production, allocating resources and sniffing out mistakes, but her staff fails to execute, the manager is still responsible.

Meetings are an essential managerial tool and they come in different types.

Many managers consider meetings the curse of their existence, and Peter Drucker, a leader in modern management, has even said that spending more than 25 percent of your time in meetings is a sign of poor organization. But nevertheless, meetings are essential to any manager’s daily routine.

That’s because meetings are the foundation for all other managerial activities. For instance, you just learned about a manager’s core duties: gathering information, making decisions and serving as an example. Not one of these can be done well without holding meetings.

It’s a manager’s responsibility to foster motivation.

Imagine an employee isn’t living up to expectations. Do you know how to quickly determine whether he lacks skills or just needs more motivation?

Just ask yourself, “could he perform his task if his life depended on it?”

Employees can’t be motivated by financial rewards alone; they need feedback and support from their managers.

Every worker expects to be rewarded for their professional commitments, and money is probably the most obvious reward. But is it the best?

Well, up to a certain point, money is an incredible motivator, but it has its limits.

To enhance performance, managers should encourage competition at work and take on the role of a coach.

Maybe you’ve come across people in your office who are slow workers and show little motivation, but can still push themselves to the limit to run a full marathon. What motivates people like this?

Simply put, the desire to beat others.

There’s no perfect management style, but there is a way to find the right style for the situation.

You might be wondering, is there one approach to management that trumps all others? Probably not.

That’s because management styles are prone to shifts and no perfect style has yet emerged. For instance, in the early twentieth century, management was harsh and strictly hierarchical. Employees followed orders and didn’t question their superiors.