Practical advice about the Art of Management

• I know it's easier but don't spend a majority of your time in designing an ironclad process. Invest your time instead in developing people and give them the freedom to be creative - they will design a process that will be far better than what you can imagine.
  
• This is also a show business. Your staff draws interpretation from the way you act or didn't act, in what you say and didn't say. This is round the clock, there is no break.
  
• This is not a popularity contest and yours is not an elected position. You should keep people motivated but you won't make everyone happy all the time. Whatever the matter is, your reasoning has to be firm, clear, consistent and conveyed.
  
• You might have a terrific relationship with them, but you are not one of them. Perhaps you will never be one of them. Give them space to breathe and to vent. Do not force your way into their activities and gatherings unless they want you there.
  
• Give power away. The more power you give away and the more freedom you allow to those who are capable, the more powerful your team is. Withhold power and your best people goes away.
  
• You do not make a living by withholding knowledge and thereby embedding yourself in the operation. You make a living by making sure that daily operations are in capable hands and that you can add value by looking further ahead and by generating new ideas.
  
• We tend to stick to what we know best. We are good at what we do and hence we are promoted to being managers. From then on, your job is to help them do their jobs better than you did yourself and for yourself to look at new ways to improve your business continuously. Many managers fall back into doing what they did best and was no more than a glorified rank and file worker, leaving the team unmanaged and rudderless.