[thomk]

A few things that have helped me.

1. Have a one-on-one meeting with every member of your team, for 30 minutes each week. They know when that meeting is coming up, and you know, so things that they want to tell you in private can come up then.

2. A good leader anticipates what his team is going to need before the team knows they need it. Try to do that. If there's a big release coming up next month, do what you can to make that 100% successful. Make sure there are no vacations, company meetings or other things that would impede that. Give your team room to breathe and make sure they are not bogged down with distractions.

If you can make their lives easier, they will make your life easier by kicking ass for you.

3. Oh, one more thing. If you are in a meeting and you are having a group discussion on how to solve a problem, make sure you call in people who are quiet. After the conversation has quieted down a bit and you are dialing in on an answer, if Jim hasn't said much simply say "Jim what do you think?"

[tootie]

Once a week is a lot in the age of Slack. I talk to my people asynchronously all the time, so the one-on-one is less important. Still do it though.

I'll tell my single Golden Rule for managing people is to make sure they always know what's expected of them. Not knowing what's expected of you is probably the single greatest source of stress.

[afarrell]

An even bigger source of stress is asking questions to try to understand what is expected of you and being told that your leader is confident that you understand what is expected of you.

[ulisesrmzroche]

Agreed. Plus, Sometimes 1-1s usually happens when things are going bad. When things are good no one even remembers.