How you approach management will affect the success of your business. A venue with effective management is far more likely to see a high return on interest (ROI), long-term success, and higher revenue.
But why? Because effective management ensures your venue operations, run by your project managers, run smoothly and at optimum efficiency.
To make the most of your management, you need to understand the functions of management. Once you know the functions of management, you can implement strategic planning of management skills into your business model.
What Are the 4 Management Functions?
The four functions of management are the pillars of any managerial role and markers of successful managers. Utilizing these management functions in your leadership style is the most effective way to train a team member for a managing role at your venue.
Just consider the importance of venue management staff, and how integral their duties are to smooth venue operations. It’s clear why the functions of management are critical for success.
1. Planning
Planning is the first pillar of the four functions of management and acts as the foundation for all future processes and success. The venue leader needs to incorporate strategic planning to set goals for the venue. They must also create actionable steps during the planning phase to reach these goals.
Key aspects of the planning phase include analyzing the current business situation, determining future business objectives, and tactical planning to reach these goals. Here’s what that means and how to incorporate it into your operational planning.
Analyze the Current Business Situation
A successful manager should be able to analyze the current business situation clearly and objectively. This includes an analysis of the current operational planning process, leadership styles, project management tools, and venue resources.
Once you’re aware of your human, financial, and business resources, it’s easier to determine your resource needs. It’s also much easier to optimize resource allocation to achieve your business goals.
If you’re unsure where to start, a SWOT analysis is a great way to examine your venue's strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats.
Set Objectives With Strategic Planning
Next up, set clear business objectives for your venue. Leaders are responsible for helping the venue reach its full potential. Setting objectives clarifies what department managers need to aim for. Once it’s established, it’s much easier to make a strategic plan with actionable steps.
Utilize the data from the above section to examine what you have, what you need, and how to connect the two to reach business success. If you want to increase your online reach, it’s up to the marketing leader to create a strategic and data-driven plan to reach that goal.
It’s also important to prioritize goals. The goals that carry more weight should be your first objective when implementing your strategic plans.
Create a Realistic Timeline
The next part of the four functions planning phase involves setting a timeline for reaching these goals. The timeline should include deadlines for the different goals as well as the steps to reach each of the goals.
Sequence the goals in a logical order, so that the previous wins help achieve future ones. If your ultimate goal is to introduce an upgraded venue, it makes sense to work on renovations and employee training before marketing your new and improved venue.
We’d also suggest careful monitoring. Venue management software and the like will allow you to track progress and identify delays – which you can then work through as the venue manager.
2. Organising
If planning was the theory part of the four functions of management, organizing is the practical part of the process. The organizing stage is all about allocating resources, assigning roles and tasks, and establishing the organizational structure for achieving the objective of the planning phase.
It’s about creating actionable steps and implementing these steps to help your venue reach its business objectives.
Decide Roles and Responsibilities
A big benefit of the four functions of management is allocating roles. Through effective planning and organization, you can improve operational efficiency and venue performance. This is also a good stage to consider the best leadership style for upper and middle management.
For example, a venue floor manager would benefit more from a coaching leadership style. A venue manager, who works with shareholders, other managers, and vendors, would benefit more from a democratic leadership style.
The organizing function determines the venue needs, from the back-of-house staff to the music technicians managing the venue sound system. When the venue operations checklist is established, upper management can assign core responsibilities to the most equipped employees.
Allocate Resources
Once the core responsibilities and tasks have been doled out, management needs to allocate the necessary resources. The resources include everything from capital for purchases to software and work tools.
Carefully consider the exact duties of each role and what your employees will need to help your venue reach its organizational goals. Then provide staff with the resources they’ll need. For example, enable the marketing team by providing tools like analytics software and ad campaign funds.
Create the Organizational Structure
Every venue needs a clear organizational structure and communication system.
The organizational structure includes the management hierarchy. If there is a clear hierarchy, venue staff know who to approach with concerns.
Let’s say a client has an issue with the venue space. In this case, it would be best to approach the venue manager instead of the back-of-house manager. The venue manager is in charge of the entire venue space, while the BOH manager is only in charge of the kitchens, kitchen staff, and inventory.
They would not have the know-how or the necessary information to deal with a venue space-related issue.
A clear organizational hierarchy is guaranteed to improve operational efficiency and reduce downtime caused by miscommunication or delayed action. Â
Speaking of communication: a communication system is a must. Whether it be formal reports or team chats, communication is necessary to coordinate and execute your venue goals. So, make sure there are robust communication channels for quick reporting, troubleshooting, and coordination.
Finalize Procedures
Implement and finalize all the venue management procedures. Make sure everyone is on the same page regarding workflows and guidelines.
To fully benefit from the functions of management, you need to be consistent with your planning and organization guidelines. That’s the only way you will achieve the objectives you set in the planning phase.
3. Leading
Because the functions of management deal with how management approaches achieve business success, how you lead has a big effect on the outcome. If you utilize a good leadership style, employees will learn to trust you and your tactical planning.
But to achieve a good reputation and optimize the functions of the management approach, you need to ensure effective communication and team cohesion and encourage continuous growth.
Ensure Effective Communication
Effective and open communication is critical for building trust between management and staff. It’s a cornerstone of great leadership.
As for what that looks like, leaders need to know how to communicate the venue’s goals and motivate employees to care about these goals.
A great example is a staff meeting in which the leader shows a detailed presentation breaking down all the venue’s business goals – and how employees can help the venue reach these goals. Providing clear instructions and practicing active listening is also a must for honest and trusted internal communication.
Getting employees to care about these goals is another issue. Incentives like small bonuses after a busy season work wonders. Recognition is also important. Get employees to care about the business goals by giving them a personal stake in its success.
Create a Positive Work Environment
Employees in a positive work environment are more engaged and productive, and the same rule applies in the event venue industry. If your staff feel supported and valued, it’ll improve your venue’s reputation and revenue.
So, put time into creating a positive work environment where employees feel supported and motivated.
Listen to employees and show them the way if they’re confused. Don’t punish employees for asking questions. It’s also important to recognize venue employees for their contribution to the venue’s success. If they provide exceptional service that makes your clients happy, recognize their efforts.
Foster Continuous Employee Growth
From venue management certifications to employee feedback, there is always room for growth in the events venue industry.
Foster an environment that values and rewards growth. For example, feedback or criticism, often viewed in a negative light, can be used positively. Provide employees with honest but neutral feedback and offer ways to remedy their errors. There should also be channels for employees to provide feedback to management.
Continue this by offering training refreshers and in-house promotion opportunities. There should be clear opportunities for advancement.
4. Controlling
Controlling is the final of the four functions of management. It involves monitoring, evaluating, and adjusting tactics to reach the goals your venue set up in the planning stage.
Set the Standards
First, set your success standards. This includes identifying key quantitative data sets like social media engagement, online reach, and revenue growth KPIs. Your success standards can also include more qualitative data, like employee happiness.
Part of controlling your success standards also involves communicating these standards to employees. So, make sure to communicate the success standards to employees and how they can help the venue reach these standards.
Monitor the Results
Gather data on KPIs, performance reviews, venue reputation, and operational efficiency. Compare your data with the success standards you set before. Are you on track to achieving your desired goals? Are you falling far behind your deadlines?
Continuously monitor the venue and the results of your leadership. If you notice delays, identify the issue, adjust your methods, and start monitoring your venue performance once again.
For example, let’s say your goal is to improve your venue’s reputation. However, instead of going up, it’s gone down. After some research, you notice mention of one staff member in a majority of negative reviews. Once you’ve identified the issue, you can take disciplinary action, retrain the employee, and start monitoring your reputation once again.
Ensure Compliance
Lastly, ensure compliance with internal and external policies, including legal policies. Set the tone and lead by example by following the operations guidelines management set for the venue. Also, regularly review employee performance and compliance.
Being consistent in this regard will help you maintain your venue standards. It’s also necessary to stay legally compliant.
Conclusion
The functions of management are four pillars of management that help venue leaders be the best. It includes planning, organizing, leading, and controlling, cornerstones to effective operations and venue management.
From the planning to compliance stage, use the above knowledge to learn more about the functions and how to implement them into your venue management procedures.
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