Dear Bob ... I'm a hand-off manager. I figure, if I don't trust the people who work for me to succeed without my close supervision, I hired the wrong people. I got into a mild debate over lunch with a colleague who practices a more hands-on style. His philosophy is, you don't get what you expect. You get what you inspect. Along the way he me a question that has me worried about how I go about things: H Dear Bob …I’m a hand-off manager. I figure, if I don’t trust the people who work for me to succeed without my close supervision, I hired the wrong people.I got into a mild debate over lunch with a colleague who practices a more hands-on style. His philosophy is, you don’t get what you expect. You get what you inspect. Along the way he me a question that has me worried about how I go about things: He asked how I know whether or not each member of my staff is performing as well as he or she should.I’m pretty sure my hands-off style is the better one, but I couldn’t come up with a good response. Can you help?– Struck dumb Dear Struck …I can help, but I’m not sure it will be by giving you a good answer to your colleagues question. Chances are, both of you would improve by meeting somewhere in the middle.A completely hands-off manager isn’t managing, or leading. Leaders establish a compelling picture of a desirable future state, set clear goals which, when achieved, help get the organization to that state, and are effective in making sure the goals are achieved. (This is the short version – you’ll have to by Leading IT: The Toughest Job in the World for the long one.) You can’t make sure the goals are achieved by being completely hands-off. Managers define and ensure everyone does their work the right way and well so the organization operates as it should. Same thing: If you’re too hands off you have no idea. Even worse, you send a message to the people who report to you that you have no interest in what they’re doing. This isn’t exactly a morale and productivity booster.The opposite extreme is as bad or worse. Everything gets done the exact way the micromanager would have done it, which stifles innovation, creativity, and in not too long it stifles morale and productivity as well. Even worse, micromanager work much harder than they should – in a sense, in a micromanaged environment, everything gets done twice, once by the employee and once by the manager who dissects it and reassembles it.Somewhere in the middle is the manager who has mastered the art of organizational listening. You need to pay enough attention so that everyone knows their work matters, and so you can spot performance problems and do something about them. You don’t need to pay such close attention that you say gesundheit before an employee has time to sneeze. – Bob ——– Technology Industry