What Is Task Management & Why Leaders Use It?

 

What Is Task Management

&

Why Leaders Use It?

Whatever the size of the company you are in charge of (from an SME to a large company with hundreds of employees), you know the importance of task management. That is, you are aware that you have a large number of duties to perform for your organization to function, with different priorities and goals, and that involve different people. 

 

And you also know that many times these tasks are not carried out, they are delegated in the wrong way or they are postponed, thus affecting the productivity and results of your organization.

 

How can project management be improved?

 

Task Management in Companies: 

This type of management consists of the process that supervises the tasks of a given project, through its various stages, from start to finish. It is a methodology that allows making timely decisions and adopting changes in real time, with the ultimate goal of successfully completing each of the tasks.

Who should perform task management? There are professionals specialized in project management, but administrative and managerial positions can take care of it with the proper assignment and fulfillment of each stage of the processes.  Project management is carried out through a wide variety of tools: from the simplest, such as a to do list (list of tasks to do) to specialized software. 

 

Why is it important for leaders to do proper task management? 

 

The main cause of failure of business projects is the lack of clearly defined objectives and milestones to measure progress ”and the lack of discipline when implementing the strategy.

The task management, applied in any organization, has these two immediate benefits:

 

1.    It clearly defines the general objective of the entire organization and the partial objectives of each department.

 

2.   Create a performance evaluation system that increases discipline and motivation of all staff to fulfill assigned tasks.

 

Broadly speaking, we can say that it defines the tasks that will lead us to the objectives set, and when they should be done.  In addition, the principles of task management greatly improve productivity by ensuring that the right resources are used at the right time.  This includes giving team members tasks and responsibilities that match their skills and interests, which increases their confidence and motivation. 

 

Objectives of Task Management

Among the objectives of task management we can mention the most important:

 

·   The successful development of the procedures for the initiation, planning, execution, regulation and closure of a specific project. 

 

·    The reorientation of the efforts of the entire team and of each of the project areas to achieve all the agreed objectives (general and specific) within the defined time and the necessary quality, within the established budget.

 

·     Refine the flow chart of the company, improving the use of resources, delivery time and quality of work.

 

·     Reassign the specific tasks that each person performs so that they are more in line with their abilities and interests and improve, incidentally, the design of each job.

 

Importance

The success and failure of a company are decided by teamwork. The management task is undoubtedly indicated methodology to improve it. Through efficient communication and adequate supervision, this type of management makes collaboration the key to achieving objectives.  Thanks to this methodology, the information is articulated in a clear and complete way. Not only does it define what each one must do, where their responsibility begins and ends, and what the end products of their participation are; It also creates channels to receive and provide constructive feedback. 

 

In short, task management makes each member of your company make communication and supervision the tools to carry out their activity effectively, completing each task. 

 

Strategies for managing tasks

These are the strategies or benefits of task management. By using it, you manage to organize, make visible and normalize.

 

Organize your entire company

It is a fact that organizations do not work on a single project at a time, that it is always necessary to perform more than one task simultaneously, and it is easy for everything to become chaotic. The task management to define prioritizes and locates in time the different stages of the workflow, ensuring compliance.

Make the whole process visible

Carrying out flowcharts with the tasks that we have pending, the time in which they must be carried out and who is involved in their execution is fundamental for any organization, as this allows us to review the entire project, refine it and check its progress.  

 

Standardize supervision

If the monitoring of the tasks is delegated to each area manager or each employee, each one reviews the fulfillment of their duties and evaluates their own progress, and makes any adjustments when necessary. 

 

Focus efforts

In addition to creating and prioritizing specific tasks to achieve specific goals, task management allows you to define an overall goal. This will make each area and employees involved focus on their achievement, avoiding distractions. If there is a systematic way to approach the job, all talent will be focused and enthusiastic. 

 

Task Management Tools

Task management uses different tools and functionalities:

 

To-do list: the classic to do list that defines and categorizes pending tasks, with a checkbox to indicate their completion.

 

Timelines and boards: a blackboard or wall on which labels are arranged with all the information of each task, located on a timeline. The advantage is that labels can be moved or replaced for corrections, in addition to the use of a color code. 

 

Software:  It has the great advantage that it is located in the cloud and can be accessed from anywhere with mobile phones and other devices. In this way, it allows each team member to keep the schedule and the flow of tasks on their devices, there is a wide variety of programs and applications specialized in project management such as: 

 

·         Asana: Provides an ideal flowchart for remote teamwork.

 

·         Click up: allows you the integration of other digital tools (from agendas to word processors).

 

·         Trello: allows you to follow the path of simultaneous projects in a very visual way.

  

Conclusions

When it comes to getting all the stages of a project done in a timely and value-added manner, you have to turn to Task Management.  With this methodology, you can: 

 

·         Establish what tasks are necessary to meet objectives and goals.

 

·      Define in what order they should be carried out, in what period of time and who is in charge of their fulfillment. 

 

·         Evaluate the fulfillment of each stage.

 

·         Carry out any possible corrections that must be implemented.

There are several tools to perform task management and using them is an excellent strategy to increase your productivity.  If you need help to manage your projects, you can count on our experience and knowledge in the development of tasks.