Have you ever noticed there is no shortage of management books. While other areas of writing seem to be shrinking, books on how to manage what you are responsible for are on the rise. Seminars are plentiful as well. You can pay a lot of money to be told about the latest fad in how to do your job. Since I see so many of my friends and co-workers spending lots of time and money on these, I thought I would deliver one for free today. If you find it useful and decide you don’t need to attend one in Vegas this year you can send me the money you would have spent.

1. Pay attention to your stuff! You have been given an area to watch. Instead of watching what everyone else is doing, take a peek at your stuff and make sure it is in order.

2. Care about what happens in your area! I know that what is going on in other parts of your life are important, nothing says who cares like a boss that doesn’t show up mentally.

3. Figure out how to measure what you are doing. Some call it metrics, know what you do and measure how well you are doing it. You should be able to look at a dashboard and know if something is going on.

4. Care about the people who work for you. I have had bosses who could manage their way out of a plastic bag. But we all protected them because they cared about us. The boss who is nasty gets hung out to dry when something goes wrong, and something always goes wrong!