101 Common Sense Rules for Leaders: A Manager’s Cheat Sheet
Looking for some easy, common sense tips on how to be a better slacker manager? Look no further than this Manager’s Cheat Sheet of 101 Common Sense Rules for Leaders.
Some of my favorite tips from the list:
8. Always smile. Smiles are contagious and will make others feel positive when you’re around.
19. Make sure expectations are clear. Be sure that each member of your team knows what their specific responsibilities are. This will save time and prevent tasks from being overlooked.
24. Don’t micromanage. While it’s fine to keep up with what your employees are working on, don’t constantly look over their shoulders.
32. Be accessible. Don’t hole up in your office all day — come out and visit with your employees. Let them know that they can always come to you with problems and concerns.
33. Be open to constructive criticism. It may not always be what you want to hear, but listening to constructive criticism gives you the chance to learn and grow from your mistakes.
34. Accept responsibility. Part of being the boss is accepting responsibility for the mistakes of all that you manage, not just your own.
88. Take the blame. If you’ve made a mistake, fess up. It’ll give you more time to work on fixing the problem instead of talking your way out of taking the rap.
…and many more on this awesome Manager’s Cheat Sheet.
One thing I always remember when I’m slacker managing:
Amazing things can happen when you don’t care who gets the credit, so let your team get the credit for the great things your team achieves.
It wasn’t always that way. When I first got promoted, I came up with a great idea that one of my associates took complete credit for, as he was the one that had to explain it to the customer. I chastised him severely for this oversight, and it took a LONG time for me to earn his trust back. Did it really matter who the customer thought found the answer? I thought so, but looking back, I was completely wrong.
What do you think? What are your best common sense rules for leaders? What would you add to the Manager’s Cheat Sheet ?
Hat tip to Raven’s Brain for pointing this great article out.
[Phil Gerbyshak is a vice president of information technology who learned the hard way that the power of we is far more than the power of me.]
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POSTED IN: leadership, looking inward, management hack
3 opinions for 101 Common Sense Rules for Leaders: A Manager’s Cheat Sheet
Donna Cutting
Aug 26, 2007 at 7:17 pm
Great tips, Phil. I’ll add another. Give Credit.
As a manager, you get lots of credit for successes - as well you should. Take a moment and drink it in. Then share it. Because if you manage a team, your team also gets credit for those successes. Make sure they are included in the kudos.
Warmly,
Donna Cutting
aka Gal Morale
Talia
Aug 27, 2007 at 11:15 am
Pardon my rant…Wow, I wish that my boss would follow at least one of those. As he does the opposite of all except for the micro managing. He macro-manages where he does everything and is too busy doing everything to take the time out to show me how to do it so that he wouldn’t have to anymore.
And I still feel like a high school intern, being that I had to share a desk with a coworker for the first 2 weeks I was hired, then moved to the back of the building sharing office space with a different department for another year before I got my permanent cube, which just happened to be my boss’s old one (of which he still has some of his stuff cluttering the corners).
And he wonders why I haven’t integrated well with the group. And being that I’ve got both my masters degree and professional license in my field of engineering, I expected a bit more at this career level. Ah well.
Phil Gerbyshak
Aug 27, 2007 at 8:05 pm
Donna - Great addition. Thank you!
Talia - Sounds like you’ve got yourself a difficult boss to work with. No teaching most likely equals no learning. Is there anything you can learn from him, other than how NOT to manage? Think about how you can leverage him into a better role in the company. It’s tough, but I’ll bet you can come up with some lemonade if you put your mind to it.
Please come back again, hopefully with a new-found hope for managers, or at least a new one for you.