The word "manager" brings with it lots of scary connotations of the boss towering over the workers. Someone to be respected and revered, depending on their management style. Everyone has had a bad manager at least once in their lifetime and it's just as likely we all know a good one. If this responsibility has been bestowed on you for the first time, here are some tips to get you hitting the floor running and becoming a better manager.

The first thing you need to examine is your management style. It may already be engrained in you, even if you've never had to manage staff before. How do you treat your kids, or family? Are you overprotective, do you end up doing the organisation for them, can they do no wrong? How are you with colleagues? Do you delegate a lot anyway (as managers do), or take on a lot (perhaps too much?) yourself because you don't think others can do the job better?

There are many traits (good or bad) that you can bring to management. The best are empathy, listening skills, taking responsibility and positivity. The worst are bullying (not necessarily in the overt way many of us think of, but it translates itself as "my way, or the highway" in business). Being inflexible or impatient are both traits that we can all have from time to time - but it's best to try and avoid them creeping into your work persona.

A good way of starting off on the right foot in being a manager is getting the balance right of hands off and hands on management. The nature of your role and size of your team will play a big part. Are you the manager of a project - where your underlings are only temporary, their positions with an end date, and so you can all walk away at the end? Or do you have your own staff? Is it one person (a PA, for example) or a whole team or department under your wing? These questions will help you decide on which style (hands on or hands off management) best suits the business. A building project, for example, always has the manager onsite for immediate problems that would bring the project to a halt if they weren't addressed. An advertising agency may be more of the style of "go away and think about this".

Hands on is great - it makes people feel listened to and the boss has a presence that they can count on. It can also backfire. If you're looking at every part of your staff's day they may feel you don't trust them to do the job themselves, or you're unflatteringly keeping an eye on their performance. Hands off management is also good for letting people take responsibility (and having pride in it), and giving your staff freedom to make decisions on their own two feet. The ways that this one backfires is that sometimes the staff will feel your absence, or that you don't "care" enough, or that you aren't interested in them as an employee. Trying to find the balance between hands off and hands on management can be a challenge - but get it right, and you're well on the path to becoming a respected and trusted manager.