MPAKTS = Organisational Success

Management in business is simply the act of getting people together to accomplish desired goals. Management comprises planning, organizing, staffing, leading or directing, and controlling an organization (a group of one or more people or entities) or effort for the purpose of accomplishing a goal. (Wikipedia).

On the surface therefore it would appear quite an easy subject to grasp and employ. However, even in its simplest definition it holds within it some areas which mean it must be applied differently. For instance, what sort of environment do we all work in, how many people are involved, what sort of personalities have we, does one way suit all, do all people react to things in the same way, how flexible do I need to be and on it goes.

If we manage well, people will react and work well, if we manage badly or without being aware of emotional intelligence people will not work or perform well, if we manage really well people will respond and not only work well but go the extra mile. Effective and efficient management results in people performing better and ultimately how well that organisation performs. This is why company wide leadership and management skills are such a vital ingredient to the survival and expansion of any organisation. It is surely our business responsibility and duty of care to ensure that all those involved in leading or managing others have the skills to ensure success.

People are the most important asset any organisation has. If a car were the most important asset we would treat it with the greatest of care, cleaning, polishing and repairing it regularly. Without hard working conscientious and loyal people, jobs are not performed as well as we need them to be performed. Again as above this links to the basic thought that if you treat someone well they will perform well. However, as we'll see below, this is not always enough.

Attitude is something we all have and sometimes it is good and sometimes not so good. People who manage others can affect their team and therefore their attitude very easily so we need to be conscious of how we could affect a persons attitude and especially what we can do to make it more positive. The ideal situation is that we end up with a team, group, organisation which has people with excellent attitudes; this is not as much as a dream as you may think, there are ways to achieve this.

Knowledge is a fundamental ingredient of a good employee. When a new member joins we do our best to bring that person or those people up to speed. Induction sessions are geared towards helping people learn what they need to know about the company and how they will be working including basic working rules. However, we do not always use trained people to do this, we assume we just need someone with a little confidence to stand up and deliver the training. Not so! The "skill" of transferring skills, knowledge and understanding is exactly that, a skill. Use untrained personnel to save money and it will cost you 10 times more.

Training therefore follows on from the discussion about knowledge. We need staff in our organisation that performs to the best of their ability but they can NOT do this if they have not received training from a knowledgeable trainer with understanding of how to transfer the skills, knowledge and understanding effectively. Investing in good quality training (and the trainers who provide it) will give you an excellent return on that investment. Don't cut corners on the training delivery or you'll be cutting your profits.

Skill goes hand in hand with the knowledge and understanding in the training we receive and the same logic must be applied. If we need to go to hospital for an operation, we hope that the surgeon is highly skilled. We hope that surgeon was trained by an exceptional trainer and the surgeon monitored and checked until they became expert. In business we must ensure skills are not just attained and then left to fade. We must ensure we monitor and re assess to maintain and even improve skill levels.

Look closely at all the above items spelling MPAKTS and you'll see clearly that any organisation wishing to be successful must invest in the people it employs. Through the investment in our people and employee engagement we build a more secure and productive future.