Don't DO Anything

Your job as a manager is to "plan, organize, control, and direct." Don't let yourself waste valuable time by falling back on what you did before you became a manager.

Written byF. John Reh
| 1 min read
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Your job as a manager is to "plan, organize, control, and direct." Don't let yourself waste valuable time by falling back on what you did before you became a manager. We know you enjoy it and you are good at it. That's why you were promoted. Now you need to concentrate your efforts on managing, not on "doing."

The second half of the “don’t do anything” equation is how do you go about getting other people to do the “doing.”

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Tell people what you want, not how to do it. You will find people more responsive and less defensive if you can give them guidance not instructions. You will also see more initiative, more innovation, and more of an ownership attitude develop over time.

 

About the Author

  • F. John Reh is a business management expert, with more than 30 years of experience in the field. As a writer and journalist over the past 17+ years, he has covered business management for The Balance. During his 30-year career, from project manager to vice president, he worked in the fields of engineering and construction, applied scientific research, design and architecture, e-commerce, and more.

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