You want to be generous and flexible with your employees, right? Why wouldn't you? Everybody is working harder. Everybody is under more pressure. Everybody needs more than what they are getting.

If you are the boss -- anybody's boss -- one of the most important parts of your job is taking care of your people. Remember, people work to take care of themselves and their families. And they need your help. Some managers consistently do more for their employees. If you're not one of those managers, what is your problem?

Start looking at the discretionary resources that are within your disposal already. Use your power over work conditions -- scheduling, recognition, exposure to decision makers, deciding what tasks are assigned to whom, who gets extra training opportunities, where each employee works, and with which coworkers, and so on.

Have you gone to great lengths to extend your discretionary resources? Get on the phone and beg for more resources, jump through hoops, and bend over backwards if you have to. Use whatever resources you can get your hands on as bargaining chips to drive performance and then reward employees more when they deserve it.

Remember, being generous and flexible is not about being a pushover. It is not about doing more for everyone. It is about differentiating and doing more for employees when they work harder, smarter, faster, and better. It's about doing more for employees when they go the extra mile. It's about doing more for people when they deserve it.

And remember, it turns out that the only managers who succeed at being generous and flexible on an ongoing basis are the managers who practice the old-fashioned basics of management. It's the hard-nosed results oriented managers who spell out expectations every step of the way and then monitor measure and document performance every step of the way. Those are the managers who make it possible to be flexible and generous in the real world. Those are the managers who are able to be flexible and generous on an ongoing basis because it's fair. It's not so good for low performers, it's especially good for high performers, and it's very good for business.

BONUS MANAGEMENT BEST PRACTICE
Can you think of a direct-report who has not delivered on the basic expectations of the job for you recently? Are there any rewards or special discretionary resources you can withhold in proportion to this individual's lack of performance?