Leadership Management: building and managing effective teams

What does management mean?

It is easy to say manager, but it is in his or her performance of daily tasks that the professional figure assumes most prominence.

The manager, or rather, the management figure is the one who pursues results by deploying three actions: organizing, controlling and planning.

The ultimate goal, consisting of numerous steps, is to create-especially to keep intact-an organized and rational solid structure through internal methods, procedures and policies.

Although the definition may be tempting, in practice the duties of a manager are quite varied, and to achieve professional qualification it is necessary to move according to well-defined patterns that begin with skillful fine-tuning of a growth model.

There are many aspects to consider, ranging from the ability to manage different teams to the organization of space.

What does leadership mean?

Leadership is the ability to lead a given group of people toward a goal; the characteristics that are identified in leadership are communication and motivational skills.

A leader’s strength is directly proportional to his or her ability to best manage the team he or she chooses to form.

Somewhat like a commander who leads his fleet to its destination, a leader to be defined as such and keep his professional role intact must develop excellent cognitive empathy to help the team subject who shows difficulties and increase gear, have good organizational skills to better manage intermediate steps, and develop a self-control such that he conveys confidence without being influenced by the external environment.

The figure of the leader is therefore unthinkable to categorize; he or she can be the supreme leader, the CEO, the purchasing manager or any adviser.

What sets him apart are the – generally – innate gifts that enable him to be influential.

What does leadership management mean?

There is a moment when the role of the leader meets – sometimes collides with – the figure of the manager.

This is where leadership management is born, which chooses to combine the two roles and increase the tools that identify a winning and healthy company: empowerment, motivation, overview, internal communication.

If the manager deals with everything related to bureaucracy, after all, the position is a formal professional figure with conferral by minutes, he or she holds some power in enacting his or her thoughtful decisions and plays the role of planner.

The leader otherwise may have an official appointment, but his being in charge of a group is something internally recognized that differs from being a good leader because it is written on paper.

The leader can implement his or her decisions to the extent that his or her team accepts them, can influence decisions, and assumes the risks of his or her choices.

Leader and Manager: meeting

While managerial management is essential to operate in the marketplace from a solidly based company, it is equally necessary to rely on-and trust-a cohesive and functional team that, united at the right point, works toward achieving the goal.

To make this happen, it is necessary to bring management and leadership very carefully together, which is how the figure of one becomes essential to the other and vice versa.

The various steps of business growth must move in different directions: horizontally where each professional figure involved must do his or her job, and vertically to improve and optimize the achievement of the goals included – also – in the business plan.

Supervision, support and motivation. These are the three elements that unite leadership and management.

The two activities prove complementary and essential, sometimes they can be performed by the same individual, demonstrating managerial skills accentuated by leadership qualities.

Leader and Manager: clash

Business realities very often see the two figures – leader and manager – quite distinct and defined because of a number of reasons.

The main point of clash, although it would be better to call it a non-encounter is motivated by the fact that while the leader chooses to extol and praise success, the manager must – by necessity – constantly work on improving the flaw.

If leadership is inspiration, management is planning, and it is here that deep ruts arise, which can only and only be healed by the pursuit of a common ultimate goal.

The moment of clash is essential even when the leader and the manager are the same person, on the one hand the adventurous and dragging nature chooses to come to terms with everything related to practicality, planning, and consequently a project, here again it is the goal that unites the whole and becomes the real glue of the puzzle called business management.

Hierarchy in the company

In order to keep the steady growth trend intact and avoid slowing down the trend, it is necessary to plan as well as possible and identify the “who does what” in great detail.

In a company that wants to be called excellent, there are 5 levels of professionalism, each of which gathers specific characteristics of a successful leader.

Here are what they are:

• First level. This category includes those who, through their talent, competence, and skillful working abilities, strengthen and improve the productive sphere
• Second level. Those who work in teams, who are able to express themselves best when the goal is shared, where each element of the team does its own work.
• Third level. Here managers with organizational skills who operate according to precise, efficient and effective principles.
• Fourth level. Individuals who shift their focus to the corporate vision and create a compelling and challenging method of work, thereby improving performance standards.
• Fifth level. Steady growth through experience, the role is generally associated with successful CEOs who, in addition to painstaking work, choose to identify and enhance the different capabilities of team members so as to create teams that are complete in every respect.

Team matter: functional organization

More than just business.

A successful business can be called such when it is headed by a person or a group of people who choose to pursue the same goal by bringing their potential to bear.

What matters, in fact, is the direction to follow, which, if carefully defined and planned in the best possible way, allows the company to optimize time and costs, so as to increase its success with a minimum of effort.

The right path, without getting lost in alternative paths that can slow down and waste essential resources.

Another added value of the functional organization is the ability to put into practice structured and best organized strategies that can mold themselves according to the needs of the market without incurring more or less profound crises.

The elements to be considered in creating an effective and efficient team are many and range from innate skills to the experience gained by individuals.

Project assessment

The first factor to be considered in creating an efficient and effective team is the careful evaluation of the project with a focus on the goal to be achieved.

Generally speaking, any team must be composed of individuals capable of dealing with multiple obstacles, carefully assessing the potential of each one.

What are the stages of the work? What skills are needed to best achieve the goal? These are two basic questions and excellent starting point for a comprehensive analysis.

Next, it is necessary to draw up a step-by-step schedule so as to define in detail the unfolding of the project and identify shortcomings, resolve doubts, and choose team members based on the necessary characteristics.

Team creation

Having evaluated the project, it is necessary to consider details and variations dictated by the client.

At this stage it is necessary to categorize tasks and work phases to identify the characteristics needed to achieve the objective.

The importance of prior subdivision makes it possible to compose a well-organized and perfectly calibrated team to optimize time and resources.

Having defined the “who does what” here is where the picture begins to emerge and it is necessary to go further by starting to design the organization.

Team organization

This is when the leader’s role is manifested to its full potential.

This is where the vision is conveyed, the project is presented in all its aspects and phases, individual tasks are assigned and, if necessary, the role of each team member is motivated.

The essential factor and the keystone of this phase is communication, which, if well structured, allows the objectives that are to be achieved together to be conveyed in the correct manner.

Identification of individual objectives

The generic mission related to the project proves essential to keep the team on the same path, equally important is to assign and inform the individual with respect to their goals.

Assigning each individual his or her role in a clear and focused manner allows the individual to emphasize his or her importance, increase his or her self-esteem, and keep smooth communication intact.

Augmentative confrontation

Soft skills become relevant when obstacles are faced and the first clashes between team members arise.

The ability to best handle diatribes, to clarify without backtracking, and to restore the right balance are essential qualities that the leader must put into practice and go along with the corporate culture in which each person is considered as such and must be listened to.

One method of restoring the right mood is:

• Ability to ask the right questions
• Setting a constructive dialogue by paying attention to the tone of the discussion
• Getting involved in practice as well as theory
• Building a mechanism such that the importance of different information is emphasized, such as “red flags” synonymous with urgency and necessary attention.

Mood discipline

The ability to convey self discipline to one’s team elements concludes the steps necessary to first identify and then build a successful, efficient and cohesive team.

Discipline makes it possible to maintain a certain hierarchical order and offers the possibility of operating in total security so as to optimize time and resources.

After all, any element in the company must be subjected to discipline, even the budget itself, which follows a precise procedure both in its expenditure and in its consequent yield.

Leadership Management: from excellent to outstanding

The ability to manage the different situations that arise in the company have led to the creation of different styles to achieve the goal by zeroing out any waste.

However, activating excellent leadership management requires putting multiple strategies into practice and automating a number of processes.

On the one hand, practice is the key element that guarantees experience and becomes a perfect method to be replicated endlessly by following precise patterns, and on the other hand, the innate gifts of those recognized as leaders allow them to make a difference.

Cultivating the latter allows the company to make the breakthrough, especially when the figure of the leader differs from those in management and allows constructive comparisons aimed at achieving increasingly ambitious goals.

Rare-but not too rare-to find the distinction in large companies where the different teams have clear and stable roles and are each accountable to their leader.

In medium-small companies, it often happens that the leader is the same leader, and in this case it is necessary to deepen the role and check that no element conflicts.

Therefore, to transform from excellent to outstanding, it is necessary to challenge oneself and improve weaknesses.

Balancing management & leadership in a nutshell

Business success is ensured by critically executed management & leadership.

The combination of the two roles, whether held by the same person or by different individuals, makes it possible to improve business performance and to highlight the talents of each individual element in the company.

In the summary, business success occurs when:

• Those with decision-making power choose to ask questions and challenge themselves
• Managers make use of teams chosen with certain criteria
• The main difference between manager and leader is the communication mode: authoritarian vs. motivational
• The manager chooses to tell the work group what to do, the leader tends to show it
• The leader adds models and “re-reads” the good idea proposed by the manager
• The manager goes along with the change enacted by the leader
• The manager can exercise power over the work group, the leader chooses to develop and improve it.

The bulleted list allows us to emphasize how important it is for the two figures to be present in the company.

Modern leadership management: the art of humanity

The current historical moment has allowed for the creation of a new leadership model that is based on cross-cutting values such as humanity and kindness.

The new economic challenges, the different approach to environmental issues, the pandemic, and all its consequences have made it possible to model corporate culture from a kind perspective.

This means that companies must and can pay more attention to soft skills that, combined with hard skills, ensure a more serene and livable environment.

The manager retains his or her essential leadership role and combines with the leader’s skills that reinforce the vision of an “us” at the expense of a “me” with no future.

Attention is given to caring for the individual that moves hand in hand with corporate growth.

The leader becomes an essential figure as he or she represents and enables the manager to connect with the team and move on the same wavelength in the desired direction.