Staff management is "getting things done by other people". Although you must remember that you, as the manager have a part to play as well!

As a senior manager you have a number of roles which include, controlling stock and profits, meeting sales and profit targets and managing and mentoring staff. Treat your staff well and they will become important part of contributing to the success of the business. Remember, it is much easier to lead a stubborn mule than it is to push it!

Lets look at some key skills you will need in order to manage your staff:

* Setting Expectations: Start with the premise that your staff will need to know what is expected from them and let them know what these expectations are.

* Task Planning: Set out your staff plan, so that you know what each member of your staff has to do over the next month in order to meet the goals, standards and targets that your department has been set. Ensure that your staff, should do it, can do it and are capable of doing it.

* Communication: Ensure that you keep your staff informed about changes, expectations and progress. Also make your self approachable so that your staff feel that they can talk to you about problems, mistakes and suggestions they have.

* Mentoring: Lead from the front, showing your staff how you want them to behave. Help any worker that you believe may be struggling a little, making mistakes or causing problems. Do this by suggesting changes, adding some changes and extra training.

* Feedback: Let your staff know when they done well by telling them so. Making your staff feel good and they will work harder. Remember happy staff are loyal and efficient staff.

The hardest problem you will have is the change that you will have to make from being part of the staff to the boss! Just dont get arrogant or remote from your staff.

Lee Lister

Lee Lister is Management Consultant and Program Manager with more than 25 year's management and consultancy experience and more than 20 year's program and project management experience in projects for Banking, Finance, Insurance, Leisure and Government bodies. She also have more than 10 years bid management experience ranging from bids for medium companies to large international and infrastructure bids.

British born, Lee received her BA(Hons) Financial Economics from the University of Essex. She went on to work in or for a considerable number of countries within Asia and Europe as well as Australia and the United States. While building a name for herself through helping company restructure, change management and project management consultancy, Lee became a well-known figure for her skills in analyzing, problem solving and trouble-shooting. She has consulted for many major industries, including banking, telecommunications, insurance, transportation, leisure and governments from many different countries. Some of the companies who have benefited from Lee?s expertise are Hewlett Packard, Siemans Nixdorf, Electrolux and the Philippines government.

Whilst working in the Far East she became a recognized expert on preparing and evaluating large World Bank Proposals (infrastructure projects within developing countries). These accomplishments called upon the skills of bid and project management, risk assessment, contract negotiation and supplier management and required dedicated work to very tight time scales. This expertise was acknowledged by an invitation to be the principle speaker at an International Business Development Conference in Washington, USA. She has also consulted at very senior level in several countries.

She owns and manages two companies, Biz Guru LLC in the USA and Biz Guru Services Ltd in the UK as well a considerable number of profitable web sites. She works almost entirely via the internet, visiting clients on site during major consultancies and training. Her Internet skills span from when major companies first started to consider obtaining their own web sites. During these years, she has kept up to date with the rapid changes on the internet, including the dot com boom and the resulting bust ? which her own web based companies survived.

She regularly consults, writes and lectures on business, bid management and marketing and has published numerous courses and books.