The Effective Manager

by Mark Horstman

People and their behaviors are what deliver results to your organization. (Not systems, not processes, not computers, not machines.) Results are your primary responsibility.

If you're going to create trust and trusting relationships with your directs, then, you're going to have to talk to them frequently about things that are important to them.

the most important thing you can do as a manager is to develop a trusting relationship with the people on your team.

Performance communication accounts for 30 percent of the total value created by engaging in the four critical behaviors.

The direct should do the job and not the manager, because the direct is cheaper labor. If we can achieve an acceptable quality level with less cost, for all but the most important things we do, we should do so.

because One On Ones are also about relationships, trust is especially important. That means that managers have to be sure to do what they say they're going to do. Thus, remembering what we've committed to do takes on special meaning.

Don't make the perfect the enemy of the good.

If you're not willing to verbally joust through some turbulence when you introduce a new idea, it's probably not worth doing.

Every interruption is caused by the person being interrupted, when that person stops what she's doing.

Never ask a question whose answer you don't intend to honor.