Essay: Managing a successful team (Midas group)

Managing a successful team within a place of work takes not only great skill and organisation, but also requires leadership and management qualities to help keep staff motivated which in turn keeps a business running efficiently. As well as managing staff, the manager of a company needs to consider competition from the market, and ways to exceed the standards of competition to be the best they can be. Supply and demand curves enable managers to see what their business needs to be producing in particular to keep business booming and help to show at what price products or services should be sold at to ensure the maximum profit is earned without having an excess supply of goods. As well as looking at the economics of the sector which their business is in, managers must keep their team happy and on board with any changes within the company and assume responsibility within the company itself. There are many ways in which to do this, however ensuring unity of direction from your staff is one of the most important and effective, as indicated by Henri Fayol. For example, if all the workers in a company do not share a common goal for said institution, it is unlikely to be achieved as not everyone knows what they are working towards, let alone how to succeed at doing so. The key to this is effective communication, a sense of unity and teamwork, and an effective management system within companies. It should be clear to all staff who is in charge of what aspects of the company, and who to go to for certain queries or ideas. This not only eliminates confusion within the company structure itself but helps with efficiency and time management as it keeps the business well organised – which is very important for businesses such as those in the construction industry, who are often running on a tight schedule to ensure completion of ongoing projects. One company who has firmly established its staff structure is Midas group, a privately-owned UK construction company. Practising in various locations throughout the UK, predominantly in southern regions, Midas Group is known to be among the leading independent providers for property services in the country. They have used many management techniques to thrive in their industry and get to their well-established place on the market and are a brilliant example of how UK construction can move towards being more sustainable whilst still dominating the market and bringing in as much profit and happy custom as possible. Even through their website, it is easy to find the right people for your local area or to find who to get in touch with if necessary. This strong team of key people ensures that not only their many apprentices and trainees, but all of their hard-working staff, throughout all aspects of the company, work in unison and help each other to maintain team morale and produce the best quality of work by guiding peers. This important sense of morale and unison acts as the social aspect of the triple bottom line – an economic term used to describe the application and analysis of social, economic and environmental factors within industry.
Applying this triple bottom line to a company in any sector can help to reduce their environmental impact, by looking at all aspects of sustainability and how they work together.
A key element of this is the environmental analysis of the company, for example how they use sustainable materials or processes during not only their work but their production and the upkeep of their business, as well as their regards to developing sustainably both long and short term. For example, some companies may use materials or machinery that have been transported overseas to get to their location, when there is a local source of the same product available with a much lower environmental impact to get to location. In this case, it is the job of a manager to assess whether the benefit of a much more eco-friendly production outweighs the potentially higher cost of purchasing locally produced goods, and to act accordingly. Such small changes to the way a company sources its produce can help reduce carbon dioxide emissions massively if used long term, especially within larger companies with perhaps various locations, and can help shape a better future for our planet. The future of the UK construction industry is looking greener and much more sustainable, as we become more aware of the impact that buildings in particular have on our environment, therefore it is important to adopt new methods of construction to protect the future of our planet and the buildings that will come in the future, too. A new sustainable element applicable to the construction industry that is increasingly making its way around the UK market is the use of renewable energy sources within domestic properties. We see many new build homes being constructed with the likes of solar panels, photovoltaics and heat pumps than ever before, since Prime Minister Theresa May’s push for reduced energy consumption of buildings including homes in a 2018 speech where she unfolded plans to “use new technologies and modern construction practices to at least halve the energy usage of new buildings by 2030” (Holder, M.). While not every construction company does its absolute best to adapt to new methods of building in order to make buildings as sustainable as possible, using renewable energy resources such as these is one of the simplest ways to do so and it is believed that domestic properties are just the beginning of a new wave of sustainable construction within society, in that “it is possible to use buildings as a platform for placing renewable and semi-renewable sources of energy.” (Goodhew, S., 2016). Not only does the use of renewable energy sources relate to the environmental aspect of the triple bottom line, if their use continues into the future, it could end up being advantageous economically also, as it is expected that “by 2020 all the renewable power generation technologies that are now in commercial use are expected to fall within the fossil fuel-fired cost range” (Gabbatiss, J.). Although it is hugely important to assess these two elements of the triple bottom line, the social aspect also plays a huge part in how companies can use sustainability within their work, which is why it’s vital to combine all three elements while choosing a sustainability focus for your company.