## The Basic Functions of Management

Every day, managers tackle difficult problems, guide organizations towards success, and achieve impressive results.  Good management is essential for any organization to thrive.  Peter Drucker, a prominent management theorist, identified five key tasks that managers perform: setting goals, organizing activities, motivating and communicating, measuring performance, and developing people.

These five tasks fall into four core management functions: planning (setting goals and deciding activities), organizing (structuring activities and people), leading (motivating, communicating with, and developing people), and controlling (setting targets and measuring performance). 

Regardless of their specific role, managers perform numerous and varied tasks, all of which can be categorized within these four fundamental functions. 

These functions apply to all managers, from top executives like Mark Zuckerberg at Facebook and Alan Mulally at Ford, to local restaurant managers, airport security team leaders, and sales and marketing directors.  As Paul Hawken, an environmentalist, entrepreneur, and author, puts it: "Good management is the art of making problems so interesting and their solutions so constructive that everyone wants to get to work and deal with them."