Autonomy is very important. Employees need to understand the structure of the environment they're working in and, if there are constraints, they need to be clearly communicated - and then given the resources they need to make decisions and accomplish things. If people are constantly looking over their shoulder wondering whether they should or shouldn't be making certain decisions, or whether they'll be punished if they make the wrong one, then you really won't have any innovation, problems will go unsolved and goals won't be accomplished. I liken it to a baseball player - while they don't hit a home run every time at the plate, if they never swing the bat, they never hit the ball. So, from a leadership standpoint, you have to be cautious that you don't have your people fearful of making decisions. If you employees understand what the company is trying to accomplish, I think they have the ability to make the right decisions a majority of the time - probably more often than a ball player hits the ball.

Mine and our company's philosophy on managing people is that it's the people doing the job that often have the best ideas about how best to do it. If you don't have a good avenue for people to be able to communicate their ideas and solve problems on their own, you really take away their creativity, ingenuity and wisdom, and they tend to rely too heavily on someone telling them what to do.

Having said that, I also think that they have to have leadership; people have to know where the company is going, what it's about, what it stands for, what its values are - and it's the leader's job to clearly and frequently articulate their path for getting there.

I have had some excellent mentors in my career, and still have some today. One of the most important things I learned from them is, you can't be afraid to hear bad news and you shouldn't react negatively to all bad news. You can get distressed by it and not like it, but if people are afraid to bring you bad news, then you get a very limited view of your business. People have to feel free to come in and tell you what's going on or what issues they need some help with. After all, they just may need some more resources, a little advice, a course correction, or a bit more insight into what the company's goals are. I would say that that is one of the most important things I learnt from my mentors.

Another important lesson I learnt is that you can't do it all yourself. That's probably in every management tome that's ever been written, but a good manager - a good leader - needs to recognize that things get done through other people. If you don't give people the freedom to do things their own way, while it might be different than how you would do it, it doesn't matter as long as the end goal is accomplished. So learning not to micromanage every decision made by the people under you is critical for every leader. I would say those are two of the most important and valuable lessons I've ever learned - sometimes painfully.