Stay Human

As a manager your primary role is to manage people.  Yes - there are numbers, budgets and time lines that provide constraints and parameters.

Your job is to manage people!

Real people with real lives with real problems outside of work.  Ask them about their real lives.

Peoples working lives are only a small part of who they are as a human being.

It doesn't hurt to ask someone how their kids are doing, how their evening was or what events they might have coming up.

Expressing your human side to others could be the difference between your reports responding well or not responding at all.

(Image: http://www.flickr.com/photos/anabadili/3098984064/)