Common Management Problems – And How To Address Them
By Sanam Shah, Supervisor at PRLab
PRLab has many unique opportunities for students seeking a career in the public relations world. Chief among them are the leadership prospects available to all students who display management potential. As with all management roles however, a PRLab supervisor will most likely run into some issues when working with their team over the semester. Here are some common issues that managers may run into, and some solutions on how to deal with them.
- Account Executives regularly butt heads over working styles or other interpersonal issues
Working in a team can be tricky, especially when there are multiple team members with different backgrounds and working methods. Host a meeting with the conflicting team members in a neutral environment away from where the team usually works – for example, a coffee shop. Let all parties have a say in what they think they can individually do about the issue. Not what the other can do, but how each executive can personally contribute to a viable solution. Act as a mediator and help your team reach a settlement, which will likely include a little bit of compromise on everyone’s part.
- Project management and accountability issues
A key aspect of project management is getting to know your team: not only their strengths and skills, but also their preferences and weak areas. Make all communications really clear about this from the onset, so that you can assign appropriate work to the right executives. Producing a project tracker with clear leaders for each assignment, strict deadlines and revision dates, and other pertinent information can help create a clear line of accountability for each task. It’s easier to be accountable when deadlines are available for everyone to see.
Exerting authority and control at the right time is a central task of management, and as such, managers mustn’t be afraid of conflict when it rears its head. Many supervisors may be afraid of “being the bad guy”, but an important aspect of being successful in a managerial position is knowing when to be a friend and when to be firm with your team.