17. Celebrate

"If people are coming to work excited ... if they're making mistakes freely and fearlessly . . . if they're having fun ... if they're concentrating on doing things, rather than preparing reports and going to meetings - then somewhere you have leaders." Robert Townsend, Further Up The Organization

I find an excuse every day to reward my staff with a little something - a modest celebration for a result no matter how small, how trivial it seems. If you do the same, you'll have a motivated staff who have a habit of celebrating every success. And that's so important.

And the rewards? Tiny. A box of doughnuts. Extra froth on their cappuccinos. A chance to go outside and sit in the sun.

Sometimes I declare today a special day because we just got such and such a result and then 1 take them out to lunch, let them take time off, let them tell me their worst jokes - never all at the same time, mind.

And, occasionally, I declare such a special day even if we fail to win an order. I reward mistakes, screw-ups, failures, accidents. Why? Well, they've all slogged their guts out, done their best, given their all, sold their grannies and sweated blood. Why shouldn't I reward them? Just because we failed doesn't mean we didn't strive. I am rewarding the effort. I am celebrating all that we did right - effort, struggle, determination, teamwork, drive and good honest labour.

Don't just celebrate the big wins, celebrate all the little ones as well - obviously with smaller celebrations, but celebrations of some sort nevertheless. Hey, any excuse to go and get a coffee. And a bag of doughnuts (or apples if they like). What does that cost you? Very little, but the warm feeling it generates far exceeds any cost.

18. Keep track of everything you do and say

"Watch your thoughts; they become words. Watch your words; they become actions. Watch your actions; they become habits. Watch your habits; they become character. Watch your character; it becomes your destiny." Frank Outlaw

Now why would you want to do this, unless you're up to no good? No, quite the reverse in fact. The better a manager you are, the more information you need to keep. Why? Two reasons.

First, consistency You need to keep everything because you will need to check back from time to time. The question, 'Now how did I do this before?' will crop up constantly. Your team needs you to be consistent and you can't be that if you don't remember what you did last time. If Jim won that big contract last time and you gave him a slap-up lunch and then Terri pulls off a similar deal and you take her out for coffee and a bagel, chances are she's not going to be happy and next time won't give you her very best. So write it down and check back. Similarly if you tell Client X that they are getting the same deal as Client Y, and then they discover that's not true, they will probably take their business elsewhere. Be consistent.

Second, proof. Being a good manager, a damn good manager, may open you up to jealousy, resentment and distrust. Not everybody is as upfront as you. If your team is giving you 110 per cent and someone else's is only giving them 60 per cent because they are a bad manager, the chances are they will think you're up to something rather than looking at their own poor mismanagement skills. It just might be useful to be able to show where successful projects orgininated, or that you did everything you said you would.

Decisions have to be taken, memos sent, e-mails written, reports presented. Just keep a record of everything. All e-mails should be saved: this is no big deal because computer storage is so immense these days that if all e-mails ever sent were saved it would still only fill a cyber eggcup.