When conducting management training for colleagues, it is often found that colleagues are not clear about some management concepts, and they often understand according to the superficial meaning. Large deviations will be resulted from these cognitive gaps. Therefore, let’s talk about my perspectives today. 

About Culture of Department

Regardless of whether you deliberately manage the culture of department or not, the culture will also exist in the department and continue to affect the work of all colleagues. In the previous chapters on corporate culture, it has been clearly stated that culture comes from power, so the culture of the department also comes from the power of the department head. The culture formed in the department depends on how the supervisor uses power. Thus, some teams will be more united, while others will work according to the rules, and the way of doing things is different. However, If the supervisor thinks that the culture of the department deviates from his own mind, the most important thing is to re-examine himself. It is because every behavior and decision of the supervisor is shaping his own department culture. 

About Rights and Responsibilities

When supervisor assigns work, I believe that many people also understand the problems that unclear rights and responsibilities will be arisen. However, clear rights and responsibilities are still not enough. If the work is to be done successfully, the delegated authority and responsibility must be equal. Otherwise, efficiency will not be raised to the highest level. 

Responsibility outweighs power is the most common problem. If the work given cannot be done alone, the responsible colleagues do not have enough power to ask for assistance, which means that the responsible person undertakes all the work himself. This is more common in cross-departmental cooperation. The situation where power outweighs responsibility often occurs on managers. When the manager has the power to lead the team but has little to be accountable for, the development of the team can be slow, and the company's approach can be different. 

About Maintaining the Status Quo

The resources of the department are limited, so managers often have to make choices, which should be prioritized for development, and which can maintain the status quo. But for maintaining the status quo, I found that most of my colleagues would understand it literally, that is, to maintain the current work unchanged. But in fact, there is a deeper meaning in maintenance. 

It's easiest for colleagues and supervisors if we just have to deliver the same thing over and over again. However, we need to know that the marginal revenue of the service will decrease as the supply increases. That is to say, user satisfaction with the service will decrease as usage increases. In the end, it became a matter of course, from bonus points for doing it to deducting points for not doing it. 

Therefore, if we simply keep repeating the service, it is not that the supervisor is managing, but that the supervisor is not doing anything from outside the department. We need to see this clearly. If we want to maintain the department at the current level, we still need to optimize the service continuously. Put the time and cost saved by optimization into new services and maintain external expectations of the department. This is the proper concept of maintaining the status quo. 

About Manpower

The workload of the department is not as smooth as a horizontal line. Whenever the workload increases, we often hear that someone wishing to increase the manpower. At this time, I usually ask back, should I fire people when the work is reduced? With the advancement of technology, many repetitive processes can be replaced by programs. Logically, our work efficiency should be getting faster and faster. Therefore, we must first consider whether this is a trend when we face an increase in workload. If not, you should consider optimizing the working system first. The best time to add manpower is when the department is providing new services and taking on new jobs. 

About Using Vision

In Hong Kong, people rarely care about vision. But the problem is often that the vision is not clear. Vision plays a key role. First of all, there must be a clear standard line. It is best to use objective numbers to define. Taking the business department as an example, the vision can be that the sales of your own team account for a certain percentage of the company. When the goal is clear, every time we need to make an important decision. We can examine whether the decision can help the department achieve the vision. Give priority to those that are helpful and put them aside if they are not. A clear vision can make each judgment a clear criterion, and then the same standards and goals for whole team.

Simon So

Head of Digital Marketing