The bottom line is that a manager manages people to perform tasks and achieve objectives. Beyond that you have to have ‘people skills’ so everyone working for you feels they are personally appreciated and important and their work is also appreciated. So how do you go about doing that?

1. Know your objectives - Unless you know your objectives clearly and precisely you cannot communicate them to the people under you.

2. Make sure team members know their objectives - Everyone should have well defined objectives and timelines so they know exactly what is expected of thm and when it needs to be completed. They should also have an idea of how their conribution fits into the ‘big picture’ so if priorities and deadlines shift, they have some idea of why things have changed.

3. Know each member of your team personally - As things ebb and flow in people’s personal lives it inevitably spills over into their work life. This is to be expected, and it should be minimalized as much as possible, but as a manager (and a human) you should be aware that sometimes their is that spillover. If you know each person personally (and it doesn’t have to be intrusive) it can help you to understand why your star performer has an off day or is distracted. People know when someone has a sincere interest and will appreciate your understanding.

4. Show interest in their output and be appreciative - It is easy to set objectives and collect results, but you still need to realize that peope want you viewing their work and showing genuine interest and being appreciative. The tasks are expected, after all that’s what they were hired for, but it only takes a half a minute to acknowledge it.

5. Meet one-on-one on a regular basis - This goes right along with the previous two points, but still bears saying. It is easy to make the daily or weekly comments and communications, but there needs to be ongoing regular meetings to make sure that everyone is on the same page and to ensure continued understanding. These don’t have to be long meetings - ten to fifteen minutes is generally enough time to touch base, but you also shouldn’t have meetings just for the sake of meeting. Have one or two specific items to talk about, and know the real purpose is to listen to what they have to say.