Compassion Is Key

It's allows the little things that make the biggest difference. Being a supportive and compassionate manager is essential to the performance and growth of your employees. If you think they are doing a good job on a project, let them know. If they have a sick family member, let them take the day off. It shows them that you are there for them and want to help them develop. Give them constructive feedback on things they do if something needs improvement so they continue to learn. Lesson #7: Show your support!

Manage Your Own Expectations

When you have employees who perform well, it's easy to become a kid in a candy store. All of a sudden everything looks attainable but you have to be sure to take a step back to asses the situation. Don't start piling on projects when they already have 10 lined up and even worse, don't start suggesting things that aren't even logistically possible. Work with them one step at a time to come up with ways to maximize the projects they are working on and adds one as others are completed. This will create a positive work environment where employees feel you understand how much work they already have and you aren't out of the loop. Lesson 6: Don't try to conquer the world. Small steps.

Don't Underestimate the Power of Friendship

The best way to effectively manage people is never to simply tell them what to do, but to work with them to achieve goals. That's when being friendly and warm towards your co-workers is very important. People follow those they choose to follow, and they choose to follow those that show interest in them and their lives. Take 30 minutes out of every day just to walk around and talk to people. Ask them how their day was and what they are doing this weekend. Show them you care and they will respect your opinion. Lesson 5: Co-workers are also friends.

Don't Play a Game of Telephone

Few things make business professionals more angry than a lack of communication. When people are not included on conversations that are pertinent to the work they are doing they feel unimportant and a major distaste towards the person who left them out. For a project to be done correctly everyone who is involved needs to full understand all the pieces of the puzzle that are falling into place. On top of continued communication, it is important that it is concise and clear. If people don't understand the message you are trying to get across it will result in a long string of back and forths that no one wants to do. So CC relevant people on emails and have weekly meetings with the group working on a project to make sure everyone is on the same page. Lesson 4: Keep constant, concise communication

Sometimes Too Much, Is Just Too Much

There is a reason that the term multitasking was first coined for computers and not human beings; it's because we can't do it. No matter how much we try to convince ourselves that science is wrong about just you in particular and you can completely split your attention between two tasks and do both well, you are lying to yourself. Any time your mind is not 100% focused on one thing you will not do as well of a job on it. Now sometimes that's okay. But a big role of managing yourself is to know when you should multitask and when you shouldn't. During meetings is not a great time to multitask because it makes you look uninterested and you will miss information that you might think is important but it is. Eating and checking your email at the same time is a great time to multitask because neither require that much concentration or affect other people around you. Lesson 3: Think before you multitask.

Take a Lesson from the White Rabbit

Never underestimate the importance of being on time. Though this may seem like a simple thing, many managers get bombarded with meeting after meeting and end up falling behind. As manager you set the tone for your team. When you are late it gives off the sense that it's okay for everyone else to be late as well, or that your time is more valuable than theirs so they can wait for you. Neither of these is a good message. So keep a schedule that you know you can stick to. If you know John from finance tends to run long in his meetings, don't schedule a meeting for directly after his. Schedule a 30 minute buffer for you to have time to finish up that meeting and make it to the next one. The effects of setting a tone of it being okay to be late to meetings can snowball into it being okay to be late on delivering work. And that's a whole other level you don't want to reach. Lesson 2: Be on time!

"Soft" Business Skills can Make the Difference

Many people will say that management skills are "soft" skills in the business world but in this day and age that is simply not the case. Any qualified graduate can receive an offer from one of the Big Four accounting firms knowing the "hard" skills of accounting but that's all those skills will help you do. People do not get promoted just from knowing the "hard" skills. Becoming good at managing those you work with is something easy to learn but very hard to apply in the real world. This summer I am beginning an internship at a renowned business, that I will keep nameless out of anonymity, where I will be exposed to manage different types. In this blog I will post examples of good and bad management that I see through the summer! Hopefully this is keep me from making those same mistakes and others who read this blog as well. Lesson 1: Learning how to be a good manager is important.