How to Build a Strong Management Structure – Top 10 Tips

You could be the most successful entrepreneur in the world, but if you don’t have a strong management structure when you have employees then you won’t grow at the rate you intend to. Employees are the ones who carry on your passion and legacy, they speak for you and represent your brand, product and ideas, therefore looking after them is crucial.
Here are some tips for maintaining a strong management structure.

 

  1. Remember to delegate  
    As the boss, you must let go of control and share your workload with others. Recognise your employee’s skills and what areas and tasks would suit them the best. After a while, a certain pattern will automatically be implemented and employees will more likely use their initiative.
  1. Trust your employees  
    When you trust your employees they feel appreciated and have adopted the “I can’t let them down” mentality. Then once they do succeed you’ll feel at ease by not stressing over the additional tasks that have just been completed and your employee feels accomplished and feels more satisfied in their role! It’s a win-win!  
  2. Set boundaries  
    Both, you and your employees need to be respected, and setting clear boundaries is one way of maintaining this. Management must create clear boundaries with their staff. It’s important to keep personal life and work-life balance, this doesn’t mean you can’t socialise with your staff, just don’t get drunk down the pub every week with the team.
  3. Automation/Technology  
    Believe it or not but the strongest management chain you can have is the one with fewer managers. Using technology, in terms of effective customer relationship management (CRM) such as Salesforce, or communication tools like Slack is a great way of cutting out some of the unnecessary management structure. After all, too many cooks spoil the broth.
  4. Remember to follow the chain of command – downwards
    A chain of command defines as, the order in which authority and power in an organisation is delegated from those who work at management levels to every other employee at every level in the organisation. Instruction flows down the chain and accountability flows upward. Always follow the chain of command and always stay in contact and update the next down the chain. If for some reason you were to jump staff downwards you’d undermine the manager below you.
  5. Chain of command – upwards  
    The same works the other way around. If staff have a certain issue they want to address, then ideally they shouldn’t skip people in the chain on the way up, unless the issue is about their manager. It takes work to manage and maintain the triangle and should be done at all costs. If this happens it often leads to confrontation and conflicting answers, additionally, if the employee felt like their manager was unapproachable then they are doing it wrong. The structure is there for a reason, all managers are obliged to maintain it.
  6. Communications  
    You must know how staff communicate and more importantly how to communicate effectively with them. Have a look at my article, which talks about the seven love languages, and how this applies to communication in business. This will help you learn how to maintain a healthy working relationship.
    Ensure you are clear with your future prospects, what you want out of your employees, and lastly ensure your managers know their role and processes inside-out.
  7. Rewards  
    If you are happy with your employee’s efforts – reward them! In terms of management, you can set a budget for a bonus if a certain goal has been met.

    By rewarding your team you will find that they become more focused on the end goal by structuring their duties and responsibilities effectively.
    Team morale will also be high as your employees will feel valued and happy in their roles.
  8. Training
    Offer on-going training to your managers, so they feel that you are investing in their future. Make them feel they are an important part of the company’s’ future – because at the end of the day they are. Hold regular meetings with them to see if there is any training or developments they would like to get on board with and always show your support to this.

Update meetings
Keep up to date with daily, weekly or monthly meetings with all your management team. Make sure you all meet as a team together and discuss what their teams and sections are up to. You may be a small start-up, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t value in you thinking like a big company to get ready for what’s ahead.

Always remember that a happy team leads to happy managers and happy managers lead to a happy CEO as your business will flourish from the efforts of everyone.

Brad Channer,
Director, Acceler8me.