The Manager's Productivity Profile

A manager - and in a slightly different setting alsowhat, in this area it is about which resources. Both
the team leader or project manager - needs toare serving the third management area.
manage four different areas. Each with its ownThe third area is about (managing) the client or
characteristic and challenges. Different managerstakeholders. The client is the sponsor of the
will excel in either of such an area.team and the manager should navigate in such a
The first area is one that is quite straightforwardway that the client request is served. This is the
for most situations, but rather complex in aarea where the manager communicates about
medical environment. This first area is about thetargets and deliverables. The manager informs the
content or the product that is to be managed.stakeholder about what is being done and listens
Managing a hospital is therefore complex becauseto new "orders." Listening only is not enough
of the knowledge that is required to understandbecause the manager should deliver what he
the "business." But in many other cases thepromises.
content is never the real issue. Yet every domain,In the last area the manager is a servant to its
like the production process (manager), theteam. This could be a role like a coach, a teacher
marketing (manager), sales, ICT, etc, have theiror the attitude as an accountant or anything else
own problems but specialists in the area shouldoffering the team members a pleasant working
know how to solve these. It is the task of theenvironment so that they are able to show a high
manager to control this process of...: what needsperformance.
to be done?The previous position of the manager tells
The next area is about (re)sourcing. This is indeedsomething about its favorite management area.
also about in-sourcing and out-sourcing, but on aFor example, a specialist that recently got
small scale. Which source (resource) do I need topromoted to become a manager will most
fulfill the business process? One option is to usecertainly use a content approach. Understanding of
own sources, but if it is a limited and single taskthese different management areas will help this
you might consider to use external sourcing; buyand other manager to improve their performance.
what you cannot do yourself. The challenge ofIf you are interested to know more about your
sourcing is basically about the resources that areown management preferences have a look at the
currently in the team and how far these resourcefollowingproductivity test (and ask for the detailed
capabilities can be bent in order to facilitate anreport).
efficient business process. The first area is about