Don’t act like what you think a “boss” is supposed to act like. Be genuine in your approach with your employees and actively listen when they are speaking. Your ultimate goal is to facilitate their growth and success within the company.

If you have someone that’s underperforming, only speak about the performance, and don’t deviate.

Be genuinely interested in their lives

Thank them often

Spent years on various teams over my professional career. Best leaders I worked with were those who embraced the strengths and weaknesses of their people and tailored their leadership style accordingly by honing their focus on maximization of potential. Everyone’s different.

If you manage people that are on an on-call schedule include yourself in the normal rotation. It lets your employees know you want to feel their pain and it keeps you up to speed with what is going on.

Had a mentor give me this piece of advice...

Always train your team so that any one of them is prepared to take your place.

And keep reinventing yourself to ensure your value.

When I was a retail supervisor I ****ed way to many of my cashiers so dont do that either

Never ask your team to do anything you aren't prepared to do yourself.

Decisions are made by those who show up.

The worst managers IMO are the ones who don't show up to meetings or respond to emails or are engaged in shit, then get pissy or act like everyone should have already known their expectations or ways of doing something.

And that goes for policy/expectations/etc. If you haven't shown up in terms of setting expectations, your folks are going to decide for you. If there's no policy, decisions will be made by those who show up and do the work.

Empower your people by showing you always have their back

If shit hits the fan, be quick to take the blame. Hell, if someone has a hard time telling someone else no, tell them to blame it on you.

Set expectations, be engaged where needed, and then trust your people to do the right thing.

Learn to move on (if you've been directly promoted to managing what you once did)

Let go of your previous responsibilities... make a clean cut when needed. People generally work at least one level below their title (another way of describing the Peter Principle) and if anything, should be striving to work above it. If you aren't supposed to be in the weeds, then find ways to stay out of them.

Be honest, listen and treat people how you want to be treated.

Remember that you WILL make mistakes...when you do make sure you own it. If your team sees that it will make them respect you.

Never be a "boss"....always be a leader.

There are always going to be those on the team that will try to do as little work as possible...and the other team members notice it. How you handle that will be how your team measures you as a leader.

One of the tougher tasks is when to realize someone is just not right for the job. Never try to spend an inordinate amount of time prolonging the inevitable.

This ...
and this

As a manager, you have to know every working part of every individual's job. You're not only the Captain of this Starship you're also the engineer. Be prepared to step in, at a moment's notice, and seamlessly keep the ship out of dry dock.

This will go a long way towards getting the best out of your people.

Watch the movie office space and don’t be that guy. Really, watch the movie for a lot of reasons.
Had a lot of bosses in my 34 years as a teacher. The best ever is the one I have now. Cares about people on a personal level and trusts you to do your job.

I try to be flexible on things that matter to the employee.

Maintain professionalism at all times.

Treat everyone with respect.

Try to get everyone a holistic picture of their job and how it fits into the system.

Over-communicate.

As far as lessons:

You'll never manage a shithead into a good employee. If they don't want to be there, you'll never get them to want to. Don't waste the time.

Be up front about the job and expectations. That way you don't have to try to fix bad habits.

This is very important. Admit your mistakes and have a remedy ready to explain how the situation won't happen again. But that is really advice for anyone in the work force. Everyone can spot someone looking for a scapegoat.