Know your team

I can't stress on this enough. I've recently changed jobs and moved from a people management role to an individual contributor's role. I'm still a manager though, but I haven't got my team yet. I still may, in the future, get a set of people to work with. However, I've got a new manager. And a gem at that. He spends most of the time with us, his reportees and tries to understand what we are all about. And I really admire him for that. He guides us but at the same time lets us be. It's best to understand each and every person characteristics in the team and the delegate work to them according to their skill set. As the word goes, you can't get an artist to write about sports. The same applies to your team. You give a person what they're best at, and voila, you've got the best results right there. I know that in some organizations, due to work pressure and the load, there might not be enough time for this exercise but I really urge all the managers out there to give some extra time for this. Take your team out for a walk, a drink or whatever you're comfortable doing. An out-of-work-realm activity won't harm and might just help in getting to know your subordinates better.