Most managers are so busy with their own "real work" that they manage only when it can no longer be avoided. I call this phenomenon, "management by special occasion": Usually a big problem that needs solving. Other special occasions include (1) assigning a new project, (2) communicating a change from on high to the team, or (3) recognizing a huge success. In the absence of some "special occasion," though, most managers simply don't manage enough. The only alternative to management by special occasion is managing every day.

Start by setting aside one hour every day as your dedicated time for managing. During that hour, do not fight fires. Use that hour for managing up front on your initiative to press your agenda---before anything goes right, wrong, or average.

In an ideal world, you would talk one-on-one (team meetings are no substitute) with every single person every single day---reviewing his work and setting him up for success. But, instead, you have to make choices every day. Who are you going to focus on today? Concentrate on four or five people a day.

Some people need more attention than others. Just don't make the mistake of choosing the same targets over and over again. Spread out your management time. Some employees may need you more than others, but everybody needs you. Try not to let anybody go more than two weeks without a one-on-one.

The goal is to make these one-on-one sessions routine, brief, straight and simple---fifteen minutes should be all you need. Consider holding meetings standing up, with a clipboard in hand (to keep them quick and focused). If you manage people working other shifts, stay late or come in early to meet with them. If you manage people in remote locations, communicate via telephone and e-mail regularly and consistently in between one-on-one meetings. At fifteen minutes per meeting, you should be able to have four meetings each day in one hour. That's twenty meetings a week, at least. I bet that's a whole lot more time than you've been managing lately.

I know you don't have enough time---you don't have time to NOT manage people.