Lately I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about the managers I’ve had over the past many years. I’ve had some good ones, and some bad ones.

One of the things I’ve come to realize is how fortunate I was to have an excellent manager for my first full time job after graduate school. He was more than a manager; he was also a mentor and friend. Fresh out of library school, I was somewhat of a ‘tabula rasa’ without any experience whatsoever. I am so thankful I had a manager who schooled me in the theory and practice of that particular area of librarianship in which I then worked. He instilled many things in me including the need to always do my research before coming to him with questions. He also taught me the importance of being organized, and the importance of treating staff fairly and with compassion. He taught me to love problem solving. I realize now how rare and unusual my situation was and I am so thankful for this grounding.

After a few years I then stepped into my first management role in a different part of the library where I worked. It is highly doubtful that I would ever have had that opportunity without the support of my first boss. I quickly learned that managing people isn’t as easy as it may look. I had a sort of baptism by fire in this new role but the job suited me and I think I did it well, overall.

You can always learn things from your manager, not just positive things but negative things as well. In other words, what NOT to do in certain situations. In particular I have found that I as a manager would like to treat others as I would like to be treated.

Here are some of the things I’ve learned from observing my managers over the length of my career:

- Focus on broader issues and not on what is petty or trivial, such as whether a staff member is always on time.

- Be generous with praise where praise is due. Encourage and foster instead of propogating a culture of fear.

- Genuinely strive for what is best in your staff instead of constantly pointing out the bad things.

- Never, EVER, give your staff a performance review that contains negative feedback that you have not previously shared, and given that person a fair chance to address.

- You can never go wrong by spending lots of time ensuring that your expectations are clearly understood by your staff, and that your expectations are readily measurable.

- Trust your staff to do what is right. They may not always succeed but you need to start from a sense of trust and encouragement rather than distrust.

- Treat everyone fairly; don’t try to play staff members off each other.

- Share more not less information with staff.

- Be sure not to focus more on your own opportunities for advancement than on advancing the interests of your staff.

- A good manager may not be well liked by all staff, but he should at least be known for fairness and as one who genuinely cares about his staff.

- Uniformly unhappy staff means a manager isn’t doing his job.

- If your staff aren’t routinely seeking out opportunities to interact with you, something is amiss.

- You are responsible for ensuring regular meetings with your staff, as a group as well as individually. For one on one meetings with your staff, you should never put the onus on them to arrange it. That is YOUR responsibility.

- Freely admit it when you’ve made a mistake. Apologize and do not try to just ignore what happened.

- When you tell your staff you’ll do something, actually do it. Talk is cheap.

- When considering a change in a staff member’s responsibilities or focus, to the greatest extent possible, consult with that person beforehand. Don’t just implement the change and make it a surprise for that staff member.

- If you are not able to adequately explain and justify a decision of yours to your staff, then realize that it might have been the wrong decision.

There is so much more that could be mentioned here, but let me end with a point that I have never understood. Why is the feedback of at least some of your staff never really taken into account when you as the manager are being evaluated (in your existing job or one for which you applied)? If you have done your job well, again, some of your staff may not like you but they should not have any evidence of your unfairness. The truest test of whether you are a good manager comes from what your staff says about you and how well they are performing. Instead, all too often I see managers who get promoted mainly because they please upper management but not their own staff.