To effectively manage risk it’s critical to get everyone in the company involved, from senior leadership down to hourly workers and everyone in between including managers. What do good managers do?
- Sets objectives. The manager sets goals for the group, and decides what work needs to be done to meet those goals.
- Organizes. The manager divides the work into manageable activities, and selects people to accomplish the tasks that need to be done.
- Motivates and communicates. The manager creates a team out of his people, through decisions on pay, placement, promotion, and through his communications with the team. Drucker also referred to this as the “integrating” function of the manager.
- Measures. The manager establishes appropriate targets and yardsticks, and analyzes, appraises and interprets performance.
- Develops people. With the rise of the knowledge worker, this task has taken on added importance. In a knowledge economy, people are the company’s most important asset, and it is up to the manager to develop that asset.