Working for 20 years for American corporations I have changed my management skills many, many times. I started from a dictator type of management style as I felt I was the only one who had the knowledge and information to do the job.

Then I changed to the authority style where I told people what to do and left them alone. Later I became a mother figure, smiling but always worried if they might make a mistake or not. This got tiring so I became the schoolteacher figure: kind, work together and always leave them with homework.

Finally I found my style: The Jinsoo Style.

I’m the motivator and cheerleader listening to their brilliant ideas and with my experience we had the best results-oriented company.

Here are five tips to being the best manager.

I worked on a job where the CEOs always gave me a surprise gift on Christmas holidays. They picked the best restaurant for my husband and me to go to. One year they chose a sophisticated restaurant in Napa, called French Laundry. The restaurant had a waiting list of about 4-6 months. With the special certificate from my company we got in right away. We did not have to wait 4-6 months.

Another year they gave us a gift certificate to a Berkeley restaurant and there was no limit on what we could spend. Another year we got a ticket Cirque de Soleil.

So every year we wondered what we would get as a surprise gift from the company.

Here are five ways to surprise your employees.

• Surprise your employees. Treat them special. It could be something simple like an ice cream social at break time.

• Bring flowers and balloons to your assistant to celebrate their birthday.

• Have a special dance party or company picnic and invite the whole family.

• Take photos of employees during company events, picnics, parties, and recognition events and post them on a special wall or album.

• Shock them by knowing their special dates like wedding anniversaries, hiring dates and children’s birthdays and celebrate with them. Bring a special gift like cake or a small gift.

Nowadays people are really busy and we forget about appreciating others. So when you have time, surprise your employees and your co-workers with something special and unusual. Use your own creativity. It doesn’t have to be expensive it just needs to come from the heart.

Enlighten each person's day. Isn’t giving to others wonderful?

Remember, You Are a Superhero!

Jinsoo

Last June I had a chance to visit the country of Dubai. I’ve been a multicultural expert working in San Francisco, California near Silicon Valley and I always thought the city was a wonderful conglomerate of people until I went to Dubai.

I heard in Dubai there are 190 nationalities living and working together in harmony.

If you work in Dubai you have to understand 190 different languages and customs and make them work together. Yes, I found out that their management style is very successful working with a multicultural workforce.

My F.U.N. Management™ program always emphasizes the benefit of working together with different nationalities to bring global success. I learned FUN is the main language when you work with a multicultural group. FUN is the centric language that brings everyone working together. It brings each person's creativity and uniqueness to the table. The company or country brings the best creativity to their business. Of course it is very important when you are nurturing others and give back to society.

Several years ago I was having lunch at the company cafeteria. Several of my Chinese employees were having lunch. They know how to have a good balanced lunch full of nutrition. They start with Wonton soup, Chicken with Chinese broccoli, cucumbers, and homemade oyster sauce. Then they have sweet and sour beef or Kung Pao shrimp. For dessert they have an orange.

The minute I walk into the room they saw me and offered me some food. They know I love to eat their food.

One day I walked in on their "special" lunch and one of the ladies asked me, “Do you want to have today’s special?”

I said, “Sure. I’d love too.”

Last September 12, 2006 I was invited to speak at the World Women’s Forum in Seoul, Korea. More than 70 world women leaders from all over the world got together for this amazing event.

I met women leaders from Iraq, Palestine, Israel, Austria, Australia, USA, Canada—you name it. The energy level was high and dynamic. I was amazed at the high energy from all these women.

I spoke twice on September 12 workshop and September 14 mentoring program. My topic was as usual “How Women Business Leaders Can Be Global and International.” I have spoke all over the world but this is the first time to speak to an all women’s forum. The questions from the women were amazing.

Whether from Japan, Dubai, Korea or China the questions were the same:

I have met many managers and executives who have difficulty motivating other people. They are working very hard to motivate employees, they pay them well, they talk to them and they try to improve their attitude, but many managers are failing to do that.

Why is it?

My friend Susan is a good example. She was a 30-something manager with a good background, good personality, and working hard but she could not motivate her employees. She asked me many times for advice. I think the most important thing she lacked was self-confidence.

I have a friend, Mario, and every day when I see him he would sigh and say,
“Another day another dollar.” Then I would say methodically, “Right.” Then he
would ask, “How are you doing?” I’d say, “I’m fine. I’m alright.”

Every time I saw David, who was in the same company,he would say
enthusiastically, “Good morning! Great day. Let’s have fun together.” When David
would say, “How are you doing?” I would respond with a big smile and
enthusiastically say, “Great! I’m having a great time. We’ll have fun today.”

Bring your passion to work everyday.

Many people think fun and work is separate. However I met many Fortune 500 people who bring their passions to work everyday. They are excited about coming to work because they have good goals to accomplish and they meet nice people at work that they consider their friends. They are passionate about the goals they are accomplishing.

When I use to work in corporate America, I had a buddy who had a support team. They ate right and exercised regularly. They paid attention to everyone on the team and made sure we did not get stressed out. If there were any problems at work we helped each other.