Managerial Solutions (2016)

 

Problems are a part of a human’s life when we often hear people saying that they should not have taken up something so quickly without looking at other options. And it does not matter if the problem is related to your professional life or your personal life. There are instances when the problem which you are trying to solve seems to have ended with a simple solution but then it is just the tip of the iceberg. 

Problem-solving is a fundamental duty in a manager’s life and the role is as important as taking decisions for investment or disinvestment which can make or break a company’s fortunes. And the way a manager handles a problem with finesse and ease can also help in reversing a failing company’s fortunes. 

Take, for example, Cyrus Mistry who took over the reins from Ratan Tata and was admired by many eminent personalities for being a risk-taker. Cyrus Mistry took over the company when the market share of TATA was tumbling due to few sales in the TATA Motors division and TATA Steel division. And Cyrus Mistry was applauded by critics and investors alike because he brought a turnaround in applying focus towards TCS which always was an outperformer from the very beginning till the disaster that happened.

Another good example of astute skills in management was Satya Nadella, the CEO of Microsoft,  who took over from Steve Ballmer. Microsoft was suffering heavy losses due to the influx of competitor phones and low PC sales. And he turned the company’s focus from the PC business to the cloud and Microsoft still makes a profit with his vision and charisma. 

Problem-solving is difficult and the manager has to find ways to solve the problem which  shows a manager’s effectiveness and efficiency 

There are basically six steps in solving a problem in the true managerial sense

1. Defining a problem 

2. Analyzing the problem 

3. Generating alternative solutions 

4. Evaluation of alternatives 

5. Selecting the best alternative 

6. Implementing the best alternative 

7. Evaluating and learning

1. Defining a problem 

What is more important than solving a problem, is the manager understanding the problem,  and defining it. If a problem could not be defined, then the process of solving the problem becomes difficult and cumbersome as the process is not defined to solve the problem. 

Take, for example, a particular employee who comes late to the office every day on some pretext or the other and all of a sudden, the employee decides to join the office at the correct time, then the problem has been solved even before it had been defined. But here comes the hurdle. The employee who used to come to the office on time has now been erratic and this is hurting the company’s fortunes because he is the company’s top performer. 

Now if the problem in this employee’s case has to be defined with various situations, as to why this good employee went bad in a matter of time. And this can be pivotal to a company’s fortunes because it affects the morale of the employee’s colleagues which may force them to think if they are doing the right thing in coming to the office at the right time. 

2. Analysing the problem 

Analysing the problem mainly involves assessing what is right and what is wrong in the situation and understanding what is beneficial to the organisation and to the employees of the organisation. One needs to understand and ask why the star performing employee is not arriving on time to the office. Is it because of his personal reasons or professional reasons? The manager also needs to look at the problem from all angles of the problem because, at times, a 360* angle of a problem brings out various issues which can help in resolving the problem. Now if the employee comes to the office due to a personal reason also is a part of the office’s problem as it is hampering his productivity at work. But if the problem is a professional reason 

A manager who successfully analyses and resolves a problem is often known as a great boss/senior/superior/colleague and is widely admired and appreciated and will be the go-to person in times of both professional and personal issues. It is also that the organisation decides to bank on this manager because he/she has different ways to look at a problem or the manager thinks out of the box while thinking about a solution. 

Thereby a manager who can analyse a problem can generate solutions to resolve the problem at  hand with managerial techniques.

3. Generating alternative solutions 

Generating alternate solutions after the problem has been defined is the next step in the process of problem-solving. And that’s the star performing employee who has started coming late to the office may be due to various reasons. Personal or professional reasons may be different but can be solved using the techniques. Now we will have to generate situations of the employee’s late arrival which can be used to generate alternate solutions.  

a) Personal reasons 

b) Professional reasons

a) Personal reasons- the employee is late because of traffic OR the employee’s personal equation  with the superiors/colleagues 

b) Professional reasons – the employee is looking out for employment elsewhere and is arriving late  OR the employee is being simply arrogant about the fact that he is the best performer of the company and can afford to come late to the office. 

4. Evaluation of alternatives 

Now there are situations which have been developed to understand the employee’s late arrival at the office. We have to evaluate the various alternatives after interacting with the employee so as to find a suitable solution to it. If the reason was a personal reason then the employee can be  helped with the following solutions 

A) Personal reasons -He joins the office early and leaves the office early if the work is complete to beat the traffic OR the issue with the superiors/colleagues can be worked out and he can be more comfortable with the issue being sorted out. 

B) Professional reasons – That he is looking out for employment elsewhere shows his lack of interest in his current work which hampers his productivity which is the original reason for his looking out for other employment OR that he is being simply arrogant about being the best performer of the company and can afford to come late to the office which can be sorted by letting him know that though he is an essential part of the organisation that he is still working under someone and that his performance can be emulated by someone in the course of time. 

5. Selecting the best alternative 

With the generation of various alternatives and the selection of the best alternative the employee was simply being arrogant that he is the star performer in the company, then the employee would be told that though he is the star performer in the organisation, it is evident that he should keep being the star performer for the organisation and make it worthwhile for someone to look up to and try to emulate the star performances by him. 

This should not only motivate the employee sufficiently because he is not only challenged by the organisation to keep performing for someone to emulate but also make it known to everyone around that he was an ordinary person before he became a star performer for the organisation and also that he is wanted by the organisation for his performance and is respected and admired by people around him in the organisation. 

6. Implementing the best alternative 

The solution isn’t in the best alternative being found but in implementing the same over the problem to solve it at the earliest. After the employee has been sufficiently motivated and challenged by the organisation that he is still wanted by his organisation and that he has to still be the star performer of the company but at the same time remain grounded at all times will help in resolving the problem at the earliest.

7. Evaluating and learning 

But the solution is always not found here and the problem is always never resolved completely. A smart manager always learns from different situations arising around him and the best way for him to learn is not by implementing the solution but by evaluating the solution’s efficiency and effectiveness in resolving the problem and understanding the different ways in which a better solution can be generated in order to tackle the issues which might arise after implementing the best alternative And a manager has to be dynamic at all times in learning about the environment which is around him.  

Conclusion 

A manager’s job does not just end when the production line is working fine or the employees’ productivity is at an all-time high or the company’s finances are dipping at an alarming rate or moving up north or the sales are low or just beyond the minimum level. But a manager’s job is to understand the various nuances of problem-solving which helps in creating a synergy between his colleagues, his juniors, his seniors and the company.