Managing managers

IncMagazine just tweeted an article about how to manage managers that provides some guidelines for ensuring that the people you hire are helping you to grow yourbusiness. The article outlines these stepsformanaging managers:

1. Set the vision: Make sureyour managers know what they are managing toward.

2. Document the details and communicate:Make suremanagers have the details they need, both the hows (such asthose found inan employeehandbook) and the whys (such as would be communicated inthe strategy). Meet regularly with them.

3. Measure tasks. Alice Waagen, founder and president of Workforce Learning, provides some specific performance guidelines. (Alice Waagen has also written some _Infoline_s for ASTD, including "Task Analysis," "Essentials for Evaluation," and "How to Budget Training."

4. Manage behavior. The article notes that most employees quit because of bad managers and provides some guidelines for helping managers become better people managers.

5. Finally, the best way to manage a manager is to coach him or her to fix his or her own problems, rather than fixing them yourself.

In the last couple of years, ASTD Press has published a variety of books with guidelines for becoming a better manager, including

• The Savvy Manager

• 10 Steps to Be a Successful Manager

• The High-Impact Middle Manager

• Manager Skills Training.

To browse the ASTD Press collection of management titles, click here.