Praise in public and discipline in private. If you do this, you will be helping the people you manage to become better employees. You want to bolster your help, not destroy their spirit.
Document everything. You aren’t going to remember everything. If an employee is so bad that you have to terminate them, you better have a file with incidents that show you are terminating for a reason. We live in a litigious society–people are quick to sue. Your file will be your proof.
Always follow the rules. If you break a rule for one employee, it will spread like a cancer throughout the business. Every other employee will expect you to break the same rule for them.
Your employees are not your friends. If you follow this, it will make being a manager lonely sometimes but it will also keep you out of situations where you have to discipline a friend.
Prioritize your work. Stack your work by it’s importance. Work on what’s on the top of your pile first. When you are done with that, the next thing is not the second thing in your stack, it is your new first priority.
Keep a good relationship with your boss. Keep him aware of what you are doing. Don’t pester him with every little thing. He is a very busy person. Write a list of what you want him to know and try to sit with him once a week. If you establish a rapport with this person, you may find that he will appreciate having someone to discuss and share things with. It’s lonely at the top. Also, if he is looking to get promoted within the company, it will be more likely to happen if he has someone to replace him. That could be you.
Keep abreast of everything happening in the business world. You do this by watching the news and reading the news on the computer. Not everyone, even bosses, do this so you will come across as someone who is very smart, not someone who is just well-informed.
