Answers to questions 
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1. How can I best give instructions and support?
Give yourself time at the start of the day with your staff to decide what needs doing that day. Use a style that's informative and clear.
It can be useful to ask the staff what they plan to do today, and what they need from you to be able to do it well. Your aim is to be sure that everyone knows what they should be doing, and what the result should look like, before they start their work. Encourage people to come to you if they have a problem, but don't be too quick to solve it for them- help them to think it througn first.
2. How can I manage myworkload and be responsible for others?
You need to develop the skill of thinking about both your work and that of your staff at the same time: it's quite a trick! You need to learn to adapt your timetable to emergencies as well as achieving your longer term outcomes. If something unexpected comes up, deal with it promptly and then give yourself the right amount of time to plan how you'll manage the rest of the day.
3. How do I keep my focus on overall outcomes as well as on the day-to-day details?
It's important to manage your time in such a way that you manage long-term goals as well as dealing with the urgent things that come up. You will have your own ways of managing your time: review the basic principles of time management to see what you can improve in the way you're working. Keep a list of what's 'important' long-term, so that the 'urgent' things don't throw you off course.
4. What's the best way to deal with potential conflicts? There is a starter for this on the free pages (coping with conflict), and more on the members site, including moreaboutconflict2.htm Above all, don't try to look for who to blame: it doesn't help.
5. How do I maintain credibility and respect, especially when I'm not an expert in some of my staff's specialities? Remember that you're a manager in this respect, not a specialist. Your job is to make sure that the various jobs get done by other people. Trust their expertise and support them.
Understand the context that people are working in, how they fit in to the rest of the organisation, who else expects something from them.
You'll see more about this on the members' pages : "building credibility" and "the first four months."
6. I'm worried about managing poor performance. This is a hard one. Basically you need to be very clear about what good performance looks like, and remember that it's what people are being paid to do. You need to be sure that members of your team know what their job really is and give them regular feedback on how they're doing. You need to have a clear procedure for dealing with unsatisfactory performance; set clear boundaries and consult the Human Resources department if there is one. Look at the person's contract and understand the whole position before you start: this should be a straightforward business with as little emotion as possible.
Remind them that they're being paid to do a particular job to a particular standard. If they don't want to do that, what is their plan?
Will I be able to work effectively with different kinds of people and diversity in general? (to be answered shortly)
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