Regardless of your particular industry, business can be cut-throat. The analogy of struggling to survive in shark-infested waters doesn’t feel too far off the mark somedays. How do some companies or office branches rise above the fray? How do you optimize productivity while fostering a quality work-life environment? Unfortunately, when managing an office and employees, there is no steadfast formula because people themselves are not fixed variables. However, successful businesses time and time again seem to build themselves around the pillars of organization, clear communication, and relationships.
First and foremost, an office manager must be organized from the top down. Beginning with goals and missions right down to the seemingly mundane step-by-step measurements of success for employees. In order to achieve any goal in a workplace—whether it be an expense report deadline or perhaps the perfect chicken sandwich, success must be tangible and measurable in the mind of an employee. This means that when managing an office, the leader must first have an organized goal and direction in his/her mind and then make said direction clear for their employees. Think of it in terms of the chicken sandwich fast-food chain: an employee knows they have created the chicken sandwich correctly because the recipe card is a visual benchmark for success. The manager and employees are both clear and organized on what success looks like. When measurable goals are made visible to an office team, steps can be made together toward achieving them.
Along with an organized vision, a leader must also provide expectations around time management. How soon should a chicken sandwich be ready? Is the task better broken into several tasks with several smaller checkpoints and deadlines? Every office and workplace have their own nuances that a manager must not only work around, but ultimately bring together into a unique thriving team. Business blog experts offer more tips and tricks for getting organized and encouraging time management within your own workplace.
As critical as organized vision and goals are in your place of business, they are rendered useless without effective communication. This seems obvious enough, and yet employees cite again and again that the benchmarks to their success were not clear. Not only does clear communication enable seamless collaboration and delegation of tasks within the workplace, it further sets the scene for a workplace to feel like a safe and respectful environment. When employees feel heard, respected, and included within office decisions where appropriate, they are more likely to thrive personally and professionally. And when your employees thrive, the office thrives. Whether as an office manager and you want to brush up on your own workplace communication skills or perhaps share this resource with your team, experienced businesses recommend these essential communication skills.
The good news is that effective communication and organization within an office can very often yield healthy relationships, both lateral and hierarchal. When everyone within an office knows their goals and what they entail, they are better able to function as a working whole. But very often relationships need much more than communicating around workplace tasks. The best laid plans and clearest visions can fall apart at the seams if team members simply don’t get along. Renowned business experts at Berkeley prescribe an assortment of team building activities in order to foster organic relationships in your workplace.
When organization, communication, and relationships come together in the workplace, the stage has been set for your professional success. A company that is no stranger to prosperity and seized USA Today’s top fast-food chain for the fourth year in a row is none other than Chick-fil-a. The company who peddles fast food chicken, has also somehow become synonymous with quality and efficiency. USA Today cites one twitter user, Jim Watkins, as claiming,
“I once saw a drive through cashier literally chase a car down in open traffic to correct someone’s order.”
Chick-fil-a is now found in nearly every U.S. state, and yet it has kept its brand and mission impeccably intact with organization, communication, and relationships that somehow spur even the lowest rung employees to run through traffic in order to maintain brand quality. May every office manager inspire this level of dedication among its employees. Said employee dedication which one might argue is an even higher accolade than USA Today notoriety. 1
1- Haller, Sonja, “Chick-fil-A is America’s No. 1 fast-food restaurant again”, USA Today, 6/2019,https://www.usatoday.com/story/entertainment/dining/2019/06/27/chick-fil-americas-no-1-fast-food-restaurant-again/1590364001/.
