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30 tips to manage successfully are:

1. Focus on a few projects at a time and finish those. There is a danger in trying to do too much. Too often, unfinished work lies around.
2. Avoid perfectionism. It will take you 50% of the total effort to squeeze out that last 10% of quality that will mean very little to the final project.
3. Take care of today’s work. Worry about tomorrow in 24 hours or so. Do not allow concerns about other tasks to distract you from your current tasks.
4. Make decisions quickly. Uncertainty or self-doubt about an issue can incapacitate you and even incapacitate your entire team. Remember, if you decide wrong, you can usually undo your decision.
5. Delegate authority, not just tasks to be done, to employees. It is a key idea in nearly every theory of how to motivate employees. Besides, it works.
6. Praise at the right place. Some recipients will be embarrassed in public; others will be disappointed to receive praise in private. Sometimes, co-workers become jealous when others are praised in their presence. Know your employees well enough to appreciate when to give praise.
7. Ask yourself if the employee has done the job correctly in the past when a work problem occurs. If the answer to the question is yes, then you have an important clue that the cause for the change in performance is some recent event.
8. Ensure that staff members are not given tasks for which they are overqualified. Over-qualification often leads to boredom and a subsequent drop in the employee’s performance.
9. Be clear to employees about your expectations. Do not assume that your general dissatisfaction with him or her has been translated into specifics about what he or she is, or is not, doing on the job.
10. Focus on behaviors the receiver can change. If you cannot do this, you should not be giving the criticism.
11. Give criticism while the misbehavior is still fresh in the employee’s mind. It will have maximum impact. Likewise, praise should follow immediately after the work earning the praise.
12. Be honest with yourself about your objective. If your intent in giving criticism is to punish, then the recipient will realize this (even if you do not) and will become defensive.
13. Make sure you are calm before giving reprimands. The reprimand should have a problem-solving, not an accusatory, tone.
14. Be upbeat even when giving negative feedback. Communicate optimism that the employee’s work will improve and that he or she is capable of better performance in the future.
15. Involve employees in decisions that directly affect them. Push decision making as far down the organizational hierarchy as possible.
16. Reward employees on the basis of group and company performance, not just individual performance. Find rewards that your group will prize. Even informal prizes can be pleasing. Take doughnuts in, once in a while, or order a pizza lunch.
17. Approach performance appraisal sessions as an opportunity to coach and counsel. If you see them strictly as opportunities to judge and critique a worker, neither of you will get much from the sessions. Remember, the purpose of appraisals is to improve performance.
18. Set aside at least one hour of uninterrupted time for appraisals. Do not conduct the appraisal on the run, between other tasks, or as an afterthought. Demonstrate to your employees that their performance is one of your highest priorities.
19. Discuss the performance gap. When you identify the difference between what employees are doing and what they should be doing, you and your employees will become focused on objective standards of performance.
20. Familiarize employees with internal and external customers. Share feedback from both with everybody. Invite external customers to visit and introduce them to your staff. Hold group meetings with internal groups your staff assists.
21. Prepare work teams to succeed. Offer training in communication skills, problem-solving skills and conflict resolution.
22. Prepare a written agenda. Make sure each member receives it before the meeting. Bring extra copies to the meeting for those who forget them. Include a statement of the overall mission or purpose of the meeting.
23. Monitor nonverbal communication. This will tell you, even more than members’ words, how they are feeling about the group’s progress.
24. Provide interim summaries at meetings. During lengthy discussions, summarize the group’s progress up to that point.
25. Conclude group meetings by summarizing what the group accomplished and the next step. Make certain everyone agrees on what was decided and on who has what responsibility for follow-up.
26. Do not let other people push your “angry button.” Decide for yourself when anger will serve you well and when you would do better to stay cool.
27. Work at improving your listening and speaking skills. You want to minimize misunderstanding, the greatest cause of interpersonal conflict.
28. Trying to resolve a conflict, discuss the present. Do not harp on the past or harbor old resentments.
29. Hire employees committed to good work. Look for candidates who take pride in past good work and see work as further opportunities to shine.
30. Spend 75% of the time during interviews listening, 25% of the time talking. You have two ears and one mouth - listen twice as much as you talk.

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