6 Responsibilities Of A Manager A no-nonsense management model: 1. Choose people carefully 2. Set expectations and vision 3. Remove obstacles 4. Inspire your people 5. Work for your people 6. Improve it next time 1. Choose People Carefully It often makes sense to hire for talent and adaptability than for experience. Over time, the best employees are ones that can adapt to changing circumstances and roles. A fast-learning, hungry hire can make up for a reasonable lack of experience in 6-12 months, and then surpass more experienced peers. My best performing salesperson in 2004 had never held a sales role before he joined our team. If you have a great candidate but are concerned about their experience, consider creating a "starter" role in which to test them for 6 months. 2. Set Expectations And Vision Don't define the role in terms of activities; rather, define it in results as much as possible. If you lay out a too-inflexible process to achieve results, you 1) prevent individuals from being creative in improving the process, and 2) risk that the process won't connect with some individuals, and they'll underperform. Tell them where on the map they need to get to, give them advice and guidance, but then let them find their way. 3. Remove Obstacles Managers also have to act like a professional sports commission that sets and enforces rules, defines the playing field, the referee system, etc., and then stands to let the teams play. If the playing field, rules or refereeing isn't clear and fair,