A Few Basic Rules for Managing

Managing people is the toughest part of building a business (I was going to say being a boss but that would sort of be redundant?). There are some days when I wonder who the boss really is.

I think the difference between great managers and merely good ones is the ability to manage work to specific strengths and weaknesses of staff. Incentive Intelligence Blog however, has a great post that outlines starting points for managing people (just as useful and perhaps especially useful in China). It's a bit "monkey see, monkey do" and blunt (and to be fair, Incentive Intelligence acknowledges this), I think they're useful in providing a basic and initial framework:

• Focus your energy on the "stars" not the "duds"; it will raise the performance of everyone providing positive reinforcement of good employees.
• Every interaction is training/reinforcement. Paul Hebert of Incentive Intelligence phrased this particularly well: "Everything an organization in an organization communicates and reinforces what the company believes and values." Consider this.
• Reward the behaviour you want. 'Rewards should be specific, timely and valued.'