What Makes an Effective Management Team?

Quality and safety are top priorities when it comes to the  aerospace and aviation industries. Therefore, an exceptional management team is essential. There’s no room for error or misjudgment, and without strong and effective leadership, there is the potential for catastrophic consequences.

Effective team management and leadership are crucial for the success of companies in these sectors, and having a strong management team is one of the best ways you can ensure this. When change is constant, stability and adaptability are key, and when topics and issues can be incredibly complex, specialists with excellent communication skills are necessary.

An effective management team also leads by example, providing a reliable and decisive point of reference for all other employees to look to. In this article, we discuss some of the key features of effective leadership teams, the benefits that they bring to organisations, and how you can build the best management team at your company.

6 Key Features of an Effective Management Team

Establishing an effective business management team in your aviation or aerospace company requires an understanding of what actually makes management teams successful. Here are six of the key features to bear in mind.

Individual Goals, Overall Alignment

A management team is often made up of senior employees with different responsibilities, and one key factor that makes these teams effective is when each manager has individual goals for their area of the business, but all of these goals are aligned with the company’s overall growth and progression.

Management team members should be proactive and prepared to make headway with individual challenges and projects in their department or role, but this progress is pointless if the management team isn't working towards the same overarching goal. An effective management team has aligned all of their individual projects, is aware of the work being done in other areas of the business, and works to ensure that their actions are always driving the business towards its ultimate goal.

Complementary Personalities

A factor that can limit the effectiveness of a management team is the personalities and leadership styles of the people in it. If you have managers or senior employees who work and lead in different ways, it may be more difficult for your management team to work together smoothly and without conflict.

Having complementary personality styles in your businesses management team doesn’t have to mean hiring or choosing employees who are exactly the same. Rather, having a mix of personalities and approaches to work that complement each other instead of competing tends to lead to more effective team management and a more enjoyable experience for those in the team.

Successful Conflict Management

Leading on from that last point, being able to successfully navigate conflict is another thing that makes an effective management team. Members will always have different views on certain topics, and this is often a good thing in a leadership team. But they need to be able to share these views fairly, understand other perspectives and come to agreements without damaging their relationships.

When a management team knows how to navigate conflict successfully, not only will they function more effectively, but they’ll also be more willing to enter into difficult conversations because they know they can navigate them. This is great for your aviation or aerospace business, as progress and innovation often come from pushing boundaries or doing things differently, which conflict management can be a key part of.

Practical Actions

Another important feature of an effective management team is that all team members are confident and motivated to take practical action that benefits the business. Some leadership teams can fall into the trap of simply having discussions and making plans but not always following through on these ideas, whereas strong management professionals will always be working to drive their area of the business forward.

Accountability and Ownership

Similar to the last point, another feature of executive team effectiveness is team members that take accountability and ownership of the things that they are responsible for. This is a key part of ensuring that projects and initiatives happen, instead of just being talked about, which is a big factor in facilitating business growth.

Having a management team that holds itself accountable is also an important part of effectiveness because it means that mistakes or setbacks are recognised, evaluated and moved on from, instead of issues or unfinished tasks going unnoticed.

Performance Evaluations

Finally, something else that makes a management team effective is a team that regularly evaluates its performance. Not only is this a useful tool for identifying successes, but it’s also a great way to highlight areas of improvement, which helps the management team continue to make progress.

Having management team members undergo performance evaluations both individually and as a team is also a good way of highlighting whether all the team members are working effectively, or if it’s time for a change. When so much is impacted by aviation or aerospace management teams, it’s essential that only the best employees are part of them, and performance evaluations help to highlight this before any major issues come up.

Benefits of an Effective Management Team

An effective management team is an advantage in itself, helping to provide direction for the company and ensuring that senior members of staff are aligned on what’s happening in different areas of the business. But there are additional benefits to executive team effectiveness as well, which we’ll discuss below.

Sustainable Business Growth

A major benefit of having an effective management team is that it helps to ensure sustainable business growth. When all your departments or projects are aligned, managers are in contact and there’s a clear plan for progress, your business will grow more sustainably and consistently thanks to the effort of your management team members.

Credibility

For smaller businesses in the aviation and aerospace industries, having an effective management team can help to give your company more credibility. However you present this team and their work to clients or stakeholders, a management team demonstrates alignment and a commitment to long-term growth and success, which will massively improve the image and reputation of your business.

Greater Alignment

As we’ve already touched upon, having a business management team is a major benefit to a business because it creates alignment in all of the work that is taking place. As an aviation or aerospace business, you cannot afford to let standards slip or issues go unchecked and instead need to be constantly improving and adapting in line with the industry, and your management team will help to ensure this by keeping all areas of the business aligned.

Higher Morale

One advantage of having an engaged and strong management team is that it can help to boost employee morale. When your team is clearly collaborating, sharing successes and driving the business forward, employees feel that they’re all contributing to these successes and are more positive and engaged with their own work.

More Productivity

With an effective management team leading the work that a company is doing, employees also benefit from being more productive. This comes from a combination of the boosted morale that we discussed above and having clear direction coming from management that helps to keep employees focused and accountable for meeting deadlines and upholding standards.

Better Retention

When employees feel engaged with their work and positive about their experience in a company, they’re likely to stay in their jobs longer and increase overall retention rates. Having effective leadership teams helps to ensure this, as it helps employees feel more valued and invested in their work and the company’s success.

Better Employee Relationships

Having an established management team, instead of just heads of departments, can help to improve employee relationships. When the management team works together effectively and communicates with the rest of the company, it becomes easier for employees to approach and work with them because there’s already an established channel of communication, which makes general relationship building a lot easier.

How to Build the Best Management Team

Having an effective management team is essential in the aviation and aerospace industry. As recruitment experts in this sector, here’s our advice on how to build the best management team for your business.

Thorough Recruitment Process

Building effective leadership teams begins with recruitment. When you’re sourcing senior employees to take on management roles and ensure the stability and growth of your business, you need to use a recruitment process that will screen these candidates thoroughly and ensure they’re the right fit for your business and your team.

Recruiting management team members should start with having a clear outline of what each person needs to succeed in their role. You should then ensure that your recruitment process measures and assesses all of these aspects, using things like psychometric assessments and personality interviews.

Working with a specialist recruiter like Oaklands Global is also a great way to ensure you hire the best candidates for a management team.

Clear Team Structure and Purpose

As well as defining the requirements of every role in the management team, building the best team also involves being clear on its structure and the purpose that it is going to serve in your business. For example, decide whether it’s going to be functional or cross-functional, or if you’re going to have the team led by a single employee or run democratically.

You also need to define the purpose of your management team, whether that’s ensuring the standards are upheld, managing challenges, or driving innovation. This will lead to a more effective business management team because all decisions can come back to this purpose, providing stability and direction at all times.

Complete Skills Coverage

The nature and purpose of your management team will vary depending on your business, but in order to build an effective team you should aim to have a complete range of skills, experience and specialisation across the team. For many organisations, roles focusing on leadership, commercial and financial aspects are the standard places to start, but you may also have a member of the team specialising in safety or incident management.

It can also be advantageous to understand what the management teams of competitor companies look like and then ensure that you also have members that focus on the same areas, to ensure that you’re not at a disadvantage.

Summary

An effective management team can make a world of difference for aviation and aerospace companies, providing direction, motivation, stability and accountability for upholding necessary standards. Whether your team is small or one of several management teams across an entire organisation, understanding what makes these teams effective and implementing the strategies we have shared will help to ensure executive team effectiveness that benefits your company.

If you’re looking to build a successful management team, working with a specialist recruiter like Oaklands Global can ensure you hire the best candidates for the job. Find out more about how we help employers in this industry or get in touch to speak to our team about how we can help.

by William Finden

About the Author: William Finden is the Founder and MD of Oaklands Global. He is a seasoned executive search and recruitment specialist with over 16 years of experience, dedicated to the international aviation & aerospace markets. William leads Oaklands Global’s C-Suite practice and has had a successful career delivering at the executive level for a diverse portfolio of clientele including Business Jet Operators, OEM’s, MRO’s, FBO’s Airlines and Rotary businesses. To learn more about how William can assist with your next career move or to discuss your next director level hire please contact him by email: william.finden@oaklandsglobal.com