In my years in business, government and the media I’ve come to admire the great managers who’ve led my past organizations and have learned some lessons from the mediocre managers.

Now that I’m in business for myself, I have learned that you can easily measure a manager by the guidelines that just happen to neatly begin with the letter T.

Time – How well does he/she manage their time? Do they meet their deadlines, follow up in a timeline manner, act promptly on the task items before them?  Time is a constant — Everyone must follow its rules, from the lowly intern to the omnipotent CEO. If you fail to meet your time commitments or deadlines, you’ll instill doubt among those with whom you do business or at worst you’ll lose respect of everyone.

Tone – Here I mean your attitude and treatment of others. Are you following the Golden Rule? In this era of social media, helping others is the mantra – provide helpful tips to your followers and fans and they will show their gratitude with greater word of mouth and/or sales.  So ask yourself: “What’s my tone? How do I treat those around me? If you rule by intimidation, you set a horrible work environment for those around you. While a negative, pessimistic attitude will only bring your team down and diminish confidence and motivation.  What’s the tone you’ve set for your work and personal life?

Talking – Raise your hand if you’ve ever sat through a meeting trying to interject, but that one person monopolized the conversation, droning on and on and impeding anyone else’s input. There’s at least one in every group. There are those among us who repeat the same thoughts for impact, unaware that it’s a waste of everyone’s time. In your daily conversation with those you’re closest with, it might be helpful to ask others if you are one of those repeaters. I’m lucky, I have a pre-teen daughter who tells me I drive her nuts when I say the same thing over and over again! She’s taught me a lesson I apply at work: Say it once, maybe twice and others will listen. Say it again and again and they’ll tune you out.

Tasks – This is about deadlines. A real measure of how well you know yourself is how you commit to a deadline. How long will it take to get that spread sheet to the boss? After collecting research, will you really turn around that case study in one day?  As a former radio news reporter, I’ve been on deadlines since college. If I didn’t meet them, I’d leave pockets of dead air on the radio stations for which I worked. So I treat deadlines as ironclad. Whether it’s in work or life, I get this unnerved, anxiety-ridden feeling if a deadline approaches and I fear I can’t meet it (it’s healthy f for me, because it keeps me on track and I almost always meet them).  How about you? Do you respect your deadlines? Do you stick to them or not? What does that do to the relationships with your co-workers or the teams you lead?  I think failing to keep a deadline chips away at your credibility. I don’t ever want to risk that. My credibility is my name and my name is my brand. If I don’t keep those strong, I won’t have a strong business or a strong relationship with my friends, family and associates.

So, those are my Four Ts for being a tip-top manager.  After looking them over, I realize that these Four Ts apply to living a good life as well!  What about you? Do you have some others that you live by?  I would love to hear what you think. Send me comments here or at michelledamico (at) comcast.net!