1. Be willing to exchange being an effective manager for the desire to be liked. Sometimes the desire to be liked by your employees and co-workers can interfere with what you do. Work and personal relationships are not the same.

2. Know what work needs to be done and the strengths and limitations of each employee. Match work with employees accordingly.

3. Give and receive effective feedback. Remember that a manager’s job involves both negative and positive feedback.

4. Be aware of your people’s workload.

5. Give people plenty of advance notice of deadlines.

6. Don’t impose last-minute requests unless it is an emergency and you (a) acknowledge the inconvenience and pressure and (b) express appreciation for their taking on the request.

7. Keep people informed of what is going on in the organization, especially in times of change and uncertainty.

8. Let people know where they stand in terms of the quality of their work in the organization and with you.

9. See to it that people are well trained in their jobs.

10. Meet with your employees to define expectations and roles, areas of responsibility and limits of authority.

11. Reinforce people for doing jobs well.

12. Encourage employees to take adequate breaks, maintain healthy habits and take care of themselves physically.

13. Be aware of the signs of excess stress and watch for them in your people.

14. Be aware of your own level of stress, and practice stress reduction techniques.

• From Bee Epstein-Shepherd, Ph.D