5. Make meetings fun

"Don't tell me you lost your sense of humour already?" Roger Rabbit in Who Framed Roger Rabbit?

I guess that when you were working your way up to your illus­trious position of today you had to sit through many interminable meetings, all boring, all stupifyingly dull. Well, the pattern has to be broken somewhere and I'm relying on you to break it. The old ways of doing meetings has to stop and you're the very person to do the stopping.

So let's make 'em fun. Now, before we go on, I remember a tip I read somewhere. Basically you were supposed to give out five coins to each meeting member and when they wanted to speak they had to spend a penny Once they had used up their coins they were done and dusted and couldn't say anything more. It was supposed to make people really cautious about speaking and reluctant to spend all their coins on trivia. Fun? Maybe. But it would also get you quite a reputation as a prat and/or an ineffectual meeting leader. As would other suggestions such as:

fancy dress

food and/or drink (unless it's lunchtime, in which case that's functional not fun; or if you take your team out to a restaurant or down the pub, and then it's not a meeting, it's a bonding session - or a thank you of course: see Rule 17)

games, quizzes or contests of any sort

having small surprises such as chocolates strapped under the chairs

a talking stick (don't ask - a New Age Californian thing)

blindfolds

letting the most junior member chair the meeting.

All of these head towards farce, ruin and idiocy Don't go there.

So how can you fun things up without looking like David Brent? Well, for a start fun doesn't have to mean silly or stupid or unfunny.

Fun means not being stuffy, allowing people to be themselves and to bring their own contribution. Fun means allowing people to share things that have made them laugh without being frowned on. Fun is about letting people tell stories or anecdotes that lighten the mood (just know when to say, 'Right, back to business'). Fun means being flexible enough to allow other suggestions as to where and how you all meet. Perhaps your organization has a great boardroom - could you meet there? Or outside if the weather is good.

The confident manager - that's you - can be flexible because they are relaxed and cool and confident- The stuffy manager is frightened because they feel insecure and seek a rigid approach to prop up their lack of self-confidence.

6. Make your team better than you

"It is one of the strange ironies of this strange life [that] those who work the hardest, who subject themselves to the strictest discipline, who give up certain pleasurable things in order to achieve a goal, are the happiest people." Brutus Hamilton, decathlon coach

A really good manager, yep that's you again, knows that when their team takes wing and soars, they too will soar. Getting your team to soar takes courage, grit, determination and an overwhelming passion. You have to make members of your team better than you, which means trusting them, getting them the best resources, training them to take over from you, trusting them not to stab you in the back when it's time to take over from you and being confident enough in your own abilities not to be jealous of them when they do take off. Tall order.

It takes quite some manager to carry this one out. You have to be pretty relaxed and secure in your own position. Encouraging your team to bring it on takes guts, quite frankly. Let's take a look at your team. Who've you got there? Which ones will one day fill your shoes? What can you share with them to bring them on?

Shoe-fillers are the ones you want to cultivate and grow. They are the bright ones, the keen ones, the eager beavers. I once had a young assistant who was so sharp he scared me. But when I did move on up, he filled my shoes. And he came with me over several moves, always one step behind. Now the crazy thing was he was better than me in lots of ways but he never chanced his arm and overtook me. It could have been out of respect but 1 doubt it - the industry I worked in was a little cut-throat to say the least. No, it was habit. And once you've built a good team it gets in the habit of having you as the manager and then it feels comfortable with that and doesn't mutiny or overtake you. Teams only do that when they feel resentful or mistrusted. So bring 'em on and train 'em up and make 'em better.