Here are a few things that came immediately to mind:

Get the right people in the rights seats.
Know what you really need, then hire or recruit well.
Figure out what people are designed to do and structure a team to let them play to their strengths.
Hire people you actually would enjoy spending 40 plus hours a week with.

Most people are good at 2 or 3 things, not everything.
Some things cannot be taught, they need to be hard-wired.
Most your employees are better at something than you. So learn from them.
You can’t impose your work ethic on someone else.
Ask questions- we usually assume the wrong thing.
If something smells funky, engage.

Clear expectations and roles are critical.
If the manager and the employee agree to the goal- let the employee find their own way to achieve the goal.
You get what you measure.
There is rarely a right answer, only a best choice, and the manager should make it clear why it was chosen.
Admit when you were “off” and communicate why you made the choice.
Self-leadership is critical.
Acknowledge incremental growth.
Genuinely care about your employees whole life.

Here are a couple I’m trying to run off of, though I realize my situation is not the normal:

Find people who dream about things, and help them start it. But let them succeed/fail on their own – either way it’s a learning experience.

Don’t be afraid to kill things that are good if they take away from what’s most important.

Don’t judge everything by “success”

Hold everything with an open hand

AND

Don’t be afraid to do things that don’t make sense if you discern as a group that it’s what God really wants.

I guess those aren’t all “management” type thoughts, but that’s the closest I get

Now that’s a list. Ron should learn some of those for the next time I ask him

My thoughts:
When asking questions, don’t hear the answer. LISTEN to them.

Ask questions because you want to know the answer, care and do something about it, not because the higher management required you to do so.

Don’t ask questions only to later on pushing your opinion on them.

Don’t be a devil’s advocate or always presenting opposing views for the sake of conversation, often times it’s demoralizing and counter productive. No it does not make some people think, it drives them away.

Knowing how to recruit talented people is good. Knowing how to keep them is better.

Lower pride. Be an enabler, don’t micro manage.

Yes…all personal experience

[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Tyler Braun. Tyler Braun said: New blog post on "A Philosophy of Management" // http://bit.ly/dyrW8I [...]

For each team member, there are probaby a few aspects of the job they love the most. Find out what those are for each person, and then allocate as much of their time as possible to those tasks.

I say “as much as possible” for obvious reasons…each team has to do the most important work, and not everyone is going to be able to do his/her favorite thing all the time…or even some of the time. So I’m assuming there is a diversity of work and diversity of team members here.

This is in opposition to the management style that asserts that people should be interchangeable. They’re not. They’re people.

As a management major, we had to take a bunch to tests to figure out what kind of manager we were. I can see if I can find my notes somewhere if you want.

Seems like my style was trust everyone (until they give you a reason not too). Show your weaknesses. Gain support from your peers and employees and encourage them to do what makes them happy and successful.

Using examples is a great way to fill up 10 pages (esp. if it’s double spaced)!

Tyler:

I have found that the best managers are the ones who actually care about the people they manage ! A great manager find ways to enable their staff to do a great job. A manager should be a good coach cheering you on while also being able to point out ways to play the game better.

Come to think of it, there is something like that in the Bible in Ephesians 4:11-13 (The Message)

He handed out gifts of apostle, prophet, evangelist, and pastor-teacher to train Christ’s followers in skilled servant work, working within Christ’s body, the church, until we’re all moving rhythmically and easily with each other, efficient and graceful in response to God’s Son, fully mature adults, fully developed within and without, fully alive like Christ.