Managers often say to me, "Gosh, maybe I'm just not a natural leader. Maybe I'm just not that good at managing people."

Well, here's the good news: You do not need to be a natural leader to be good at managing people.

Here's the thing: Most people in the workplace---if they're very, very good at their job---they move into positions of supervisory responsibility because they're very good at their job. But it's not necessarily because they're good at managing people. Then we teach them how to do some extra paperwork, but nobody ever teaches them how to do the people work. So most managers develop their own style over time, ad hoc, based on what they've seen, based on the path of least resistance. And surprise, surprise, most managers come up with a hands-off style on their own.

Every once in a while we send these managers to leadership training. But it's almost always leadership training: "Leadership" with a capital L. Somebody tries to tell these leaders that they need to seek to understand the deep inner motivations of their employees. They need to light the fire inside the belly, see... Then they need to motivate them and praise them and praise them some more. Help them find a best friend at work. I'm not making this up: This is a quick summary of some of the leading leadership literature that's come out of the last decade or so.

The problem is that most managers walk out of those training programs thinking, "Gosh, maybe that's just not me. Maybe I'm just not that good at this because I've got a bunch of work I need to get done. And I hired people because I was hoping they might help. Does anyone have any tips for that?"

What's missing in nine out of ten work places is not "Leadership" with a capital L. It's leadership with a small l. What's missing in nine out of ten work places are leaders who are taught the basics of supervision; leaders who know how to spend time one on one with their direct reports; leaders who know how to talk in a clear, direct way; leaders who know how to spell out expectations, guide, direct and support people; leaders who know how to ask their employees for an account of their performance on a regular basis; leaders who are willing to help people solve small problems every step of the way and make small course corrections every step of the way.

That's what's missing in nine out of ten workplaces. And the good news is that anyone can learn the basics of supervision; anyone can.

If you don't believe me, let me give you an example: The United States Marine Corps is famous for its high performance environment. Now the Marines are fond of saying, “We hire a lot of extraordinary people but we hire a lot more ordinary people. It's just that we're able to get extraordinary performance out of them.”

How do they do that?

One of the most amazing things about the military is their ability to turn relatively inexperienced nineteen year old kids into very effective leaders. You show me a young Marine who's been in the Marine Corps for eighteen months, is in charge of a fire team of three marines, and I'll show you a better manager than 90% of managers in the private sector.

Why? Why is that? Is it just because they can make people do pushups in the mud at 4 am? Well, that does help. But it goes way beyond that.

The reason the Marines are able to turn young inexperienced kids into such good leaders is because they drill them on the basics of supervision:
- Spend time with your people
- Talk in a clear direct way
- Spell out expectations every step of the way
- Ask for an account of performance every step of the way
- Provide course corrections every step of the way
- Help people solve problems every step of the way
- Reward performance and reward exceptional performance extra but never reward people for performance if they haven't earned it

BONUS MANAGEMENT BEST PRACTICE
Regarding every single person you manage, regularly ask and answer for yourself: "Why do I need to manage this person right now?"
- Clarify your goals with each person. What do you need from this person? Work faster or slower? Improve quality? Stop dotting the i's and get on with it? Adopt a new behavior?
- Keep in mind what might go wrong if you don't manage this person.
- Pay attention: The reasons for managing each person will change over time.

Regarding every single person you manage, regularly ask and answer for yourself: "What do I need to talk about today?"
- Talk about the work.
- Focus on what you want the employee to do in the immediate future.
- Decide whether you should talk about the big picture or all the minor details.
- What do you want the person to focus on between now and the next time you talk?
- For some employees, breaking things down and spelling them out can make the difference between high performance and low performance.