Management and Leadership

No plan of any sort is complete without a mechanism for evaluating and improving on it. This is especially true for a management plan, which may be the foundation for an organization's success or failure. If a management plan works well in practice, then it's likely that staff will be reasonably happy and the organization's work will get done well. If the plan doesn't work well, then the reasons for that need to be understood, and management needs to be changed accordingly.

There are both formal and informal ways of telling whether a management plan is working, and both can be used as part of an evaluation plan. An informal assessment of the plan might include answers to the following questions, among others:

• Do time-sensitive tasks -- funding proposals, reports, etc. -- seem to be completed on time?
• Are there any staff grievances?
• Is there a significant number of -- and that might mean any -- complaints from the community or from funders about the organization or what it does?
• Are participants dropping out of programs or services in large numbers?
• Is the organizational atmosphere one of calm, or one of chaos? Do staff and participants seem excited or contented, or stressed and unhappy?

Staff discontent, apparent inefficiency, significant participant or community dissatisfaction, widespread stress -- these can all be warning signs that all is not right with the organization. You should take them seriously and search for their causes, so they can be addressed.

An informal evaluation is not enough, however. It's important to evaluate your organization's management just as you evaluate its work on a regular basis (typically once a year). Once again, the format and basis of your evaluation and adjustment strategy should be consistent with the philosophy and mission of your organization. Some formal ways to accomplish an evaluation could include:

• Some form of structured feedback from all constituents of the organization -- staff, board, participants, volunteers -- as well as from managers and administrators themselves.
• An organizational self-assessment, through which the organization develops a list of desired results, and checks itself against the list on a regular schedule (e.g. annually).
• The use of someone outside the organization -- a consultant, the director of another organization -- to evaluate the management function and suggest refinements or changes. (This could be part of a larger evaluation of the organization as a whole).
• Regularly comparing policies and procedures to what really happens in the organization in the circumstances they cover. If there is not general agreement between what happens and what is supposed to happen, then something needs to be done. (That"something" could be changing policies and procedures to match practice, or vice-versa, or some other solution that might involve elements of both).

However you choose to do it, creating a regular process for evaluating and adjusting your management plan should be an integral part of the plan itself. Once you've nailed down that process, your management plan should be complete, and it's time to get to work and put it into practice.

In Summary

The management of your organization is too important to be left to chance. Having a management plan will allow you to shape the organization the way you want to, and will make it much more likely that your work -- the reason for the organization's existence -- will be effective.

To develop a management plan that works for your organization, you should think carefully about what's consistent with your mission and philosophy (and what your organization says about itself). Then, with that in mind:

• Consciously choose or design a management model that will comfortably fit the organization and will accomplish your purposes.
• Define the relationships among director, board, staff, and volunteers to conform to the needs of effectively operating the management structure you've chosen.
• Develop, with appropriate input from those affected, a comprehensive set of policies and procedures to cover the five essential management areas: people; money; supplies and equipment; activities; and relations with the outside world.
• Design a regular system and schedule for evaluating and adjusting your management plan, so that it will continue to function successfully.

When you have a management plan that seems right for your organization, you've completed a necessary step on the road to effective action.