Lead Lines

What’s the Point? The goal of managers

Managing people is just very similar to managing anything else. The goal of managing things is to direct or control the use of them in the most of effective way. For people, however, “the most effective use” must be defined carefully.

According to Bennet Simonton’s bensimonton.com article “When Managing People, What is the Goal?” machines come with obvious uses and instructions for operation, but maintenance and care is also an important part of their use.

“Very few managers are unaware of the fact that if we only used the machine and never properly cared for it, the machine’s capacity would degrade rather steadily over time and eventually suffer a casualty which would render it useless,” explains Simonton.

The same principle applies to people. Keeping employees in top operating condition includes tending to office morale, individual responsibility and ownership of work, providing an outlet for creativity and motivating them to commit to their work.

One difference between people and machines is that people have the capacity to think for themselves and decide what to do and when. This means managers are not responsible for operating them, but for maintaining their natural capabilities.

“So the primary goal of managing people is to maintain them at a high level of performance and even enhance their natural capabilities,” says Simonton.