Recipe for Good Management: Allow Employees to Take Initiative (Downloadable Version Only!)

What makes a good manager? There are all sorts of definitions about management that attempt to describe what a manager does. Some of my favorites include "getting things done through others," "being paid to make the difficult decisions," and "protecting one's people from the rest of the organization." Yet I believe a better definition might be found in focusing on what a manager does NOT do. For example, a good manager does not solve employees' problems for them, he does not ask his employees to do things he would not do himself, and he does not take credit for their ideas or work.