Want to study a management course in Australia? Learn about POLC first!

Here’s a question for you: what exactly does management involve?

Before you enrol in a management course in Australia, you’ll want to begin by looking into what the fundamental tasks of a manager are.

This will help you in your studies, and make you a better manager when you enter the workforce.

The teachers that run our management courses in Melbourne know that starting a brand-new management will help you to understand everything you need to know once you begin your course.

To get you started, we suggest you read up on the POLC framework for management.

Starting a management course in Melbourne? Get to know POLC

The POLC framework represents the four most essential aspects of management:

Planning
Organising
Leading
Controlling

It doesn’t matter if you manage the local pizza shop, are a middle manager at an office or in upper management in a corporate environment – these four duties form the core of all management roles.

Understanding each part of the POLC framework, what they involve, and what you’ll have to do is integral to ensuring you maintain a good management system.

You will learn all about properly implementing the POLC when you study a management course in Melbourne with Academia.

Here’s a quick overview to help you get to know the framework…

Planning

This is one of the most important aspects of the POLC framework as the success of the other aspects relies on your planning being executed appropriately.

There are many different levels to planning including:

Strategic (long-term)
Tactical (medium term)
Operational (day-to-day)

No matter what level of management you work at, you’ll need to plan for each of these time-frames.

In order to effectively implement or achieve any plan or strategy, you will need to start by determining your goals.

Naturally, the type of goals you set and the actions you take to achieve them will vary depending on the timeframe of the plan.

Let’s say you manage a restaurant – an operational goal might be to sell more specials. By contrast, a tactical goal might be to increase bookings over the coming school holidays.

Both of these goals requires a different approach.

In order to plan effectively, then you need to understand the environment you want to achieve your goals in:

Are there any obstacles that you need to overcome?
What resources are available to you to help you achieve your goals?
Who will be responsible for carrying out the plan?

The more you understand your environment the easier it will be to ensure that you and your team achieve the desired objectives.

Organising

“Amateurs study tactics – professionals study logistics.”

– Napoleon Bonaparte

Logistics is king – whether you’re invading Russia in winter or assigning resources to achieve business goals, you’ll need to carefully organise and allocate your resources.

One of the most important things you will learn all about when you enroll in our management course in Australia is organisation.

You will need to effectively allocate resources in order to ensure operational efficiency and the completion of tasks.

In addition to logistics and supply chain, the “organising” part of POLC also involves managing your staff too.

You’ll learn valuable organising skills, such as:

Delegating tasks
Assigning roles
Organising work groups
Establishing departments
Setting deadlines

And of course, we haven’t even gotten started on the most valuable resource of all: time!

It’s incredibly important that you have these crucial organisational skills if you want to be successful in a management position.

Leading

As anybody who’s ever worked under a bad manager before knows, poor organisational and planning skills are only part of what makes a bad manager – just as important are the “soft” skills:

Communication
Personality
Negotiation
Mentoring and teaching
Conflict resolution

That’s because leading isn’t just about giving orders – it also requires you to inspire and motivate too.

In order to do this effectively you will need to understand the people you are managing on a personal and professional level.

This will require you to pay attention to how they behave in a work setting and how they also interact with their friends. This will allow you to understand what kind of communication they will respond well to, and what makes them “tick”.

Some people are born with an inherent ability to do this. They’ll have an easier time leading their staff.

The good news is that many of these skills can also be learned!

With our management courses in Melbourne, you will also learn what makes a good leader, and how you can leverage that to better lead your staff.

Controlling

This is a part of management that a lot of people struggle with because it often involves telling people when their performance is not meeting the required standards.

It’s difficult for some – however, it’s also an essential part of good management, as it helps you manage performance and ensure work is up-to-par and on-time. When controlled properly, your team will be able to achieve your objectives and goals.

There are three main elements to ensuring you execute this element of the POLC framework well:

Establish performance standards
Comparing performance to standards
Taking action when necessary

Basically, that’s a fancy way of saying that it’s all about setting expectations and providing the resources to help ensure your team meets them!

It isn’t just people, either – just as important are team metrics, as well as KPIs and statistics.

When you enrol in one of Academia’s management courses in Australia, you’ll learn about how to measure performance. Our experienced instructors will teach you about different metrics and measurements, and what they mean.

Armed with this knowledge, you’ll be able to correct any issues before they cause major problems!

Study a management course in Australia with Academia

Our team are very proud of our management courses in Melbourne.

We provide a wide range of courses for our students that are perfect for both those who are eager to begin working as managers, and those who want to advance their careers and take on management roles.

Our Melbourne campus offers a range of management courses at different levels:

And thanks to our medium-sized institution, our students benefit from extra individual attention from our experienced teachers and staff.

Management courses in Melbourne

Our Melbourne campus is an extremely popular choice for a lot of our students!

Located on Lonsdale Street in the heart of Melbourne’s CBD, our management courses in Melbourne are the ideal option for students who want to study in Melbourne while also enjoying everything Australia’s most liveable city has to offer.

If you’ve never been to Melbourne then don’t worry – the metro system is very easy to understand and wrap your head around. Have a look at our blog on Melbourne’s public transport to find out more about living in Melbourne.

Study a management course in Australia with Academia!

Call us to learn more about our courses, or enquire online today.