The Subordinate Relationship

As you move up within an organization you will inevitably be responsible for giving direction to others. Be it a team of one or a cast of 20 or more you will be the face they see as the "Boss" and you will need to steer your own ship with them as your crew (Think America's Cup here). Treat them well and they will surprise you and make you look good. Treat them poorly and you will be spending a good part of your day bailing water out of the ship.

Here are a few of my rules when dealing with your workforce.

1. Immediately set your expectations up front. Detail responsibility, preferred communication methods, reward system and hierarchy. Use technology to do this for you, author a blog on the topic....
2. Understand what they are good at and bad at. Use the good and try to develop the bad.
3. Always take time to walk the floor and talk to your people.
4. Know what motivates them. Awards, recognition, money, free time, etc...
5. Don't wait until appraisal time to give negative feedback.
6. Always immediately reply to their e-mails, even if it is just a "Thanks, I will look this over later"
7. Set yourself as the example, they will automatically gravitate to your actions.
8. Never, ever lie to your employees. One lie can destroy years of trust.
9. Never command respect. If you deserve it, it will come. With that being said always give respect first, monitor the actions of the person to determine if they deserve your gift.
10. Take top performers out to lunch, talk about what they want, what they don't want and things that they see could be improved.
11. Never be afraid of saying "I don't know", "I was wrong", "No!", etc...
12. Always give credit for work well done. Always. Either in a public way (at meetings) or, if the person does not wish to be singled out, in a private way (gift certificate for dinner for two, a monetary gift or just a day off).
13. If you ask for a team to work over the weekend to pull in a deadline, make sure you at least show up at work to express your appreciation. They are giving up their time for you.
14. Don't just lead - Coach. Your employees have careers too, some may wish to climb and could benefit greatly from your mentoring and you could benefit from another ally.
15. Be inclusive - Share the goals for which your team will be measured, the reasoning behind those goals and what it means to the business. If one can understand the game then they can better make their own correct decisions in the long run.
16. Empower your employees- Give your employees the power to make decisions and support those actions. Don't crush them if they made the wrong decision, even if it hurts. Remove obstacles and let the ones that can, shine.
17. Be positive. Never complain downstream, only upstream.
18. Face your shortcomings.
19. Run your meetings with an agenda and stick to it and keep the end time.
20. Know yourself, understand how you react to issues/problems and use that to stay on track.