Feeling My Way Through A Manager's Role

I recently was put in charge of a handful of temporary help. They are working on some tasks that don't fall under the heading of "skilled labor", and chance are we'll never see them again after their temporary hiring period passes. They know this. We know this.

But this was the first time I was put in charge of a group.

I've never done this before. I've wondered what it would be like to manage a business or be a supervisor over other people; it's kind of like the "not my parent" syndrome, where we promise we'll be better parents than our own parents because of course we know everything our parents did wrong.

The problem is that we don't focus on what they did right. Granted, in some cases you may not have had good management over you before. But this is a problem when you're suddenly thrown into that position with little to no experience in the field, so I am going through this with a trial by fire.

One problem is that these aren't full time workers. They're temporary. They have no investment in the organization, so if they decide to screw around the worst that can be done is they are told not to come back...because they are young temporary help this really isn't a huge blow to them in the long run.

Here are some observations and tenets by which I try to work with:

1. Never dress down/criticize employees in front of other employees.
2. I try to make clear notes and instructions of what is expected of the people being managed.
3. I don't micromanage them. They have a set of goals and a deadline by which to achieve them. If they give reason for me to watch over their shoulders I will. Otherwise I keep tabs on their progress through spot-checks.
4. I believe in not asking them to do what I wouldn't do. But at the same time...related to the item above...I'm not watching over their shoulders and double checking every line item. Otherwise I might as well do it myself; I'm repeating effort and it's a waste of time if I do that.
   
5. Scheduling and organizing is hard if you're not at the top of the chain. I have sent several queries to other department on which our schedules depend on their progress and goals with their projects. I get very little response to those questions and continue to get last minute surprises from people.
6. My Asperger self likes to schedule and project and derive useful statistics and be able to keep track of our group's progress. Other people, I think, don't plan at all. Things I thought would have been roughly mapped out with other groups yield blank stares when I ask. This means that there is a good chance that at least part of our goals won't be realized in large part because other groups are throwing up roadblocks.
7. I want to give people a chance to prove they can't do the job rather than vice-versa. I also want to give them feedback along the way.
8. I always try to tell them if they're doing a good job with a particular task without going overboard. Compliments are meaningless if doled out like candy, but morale suffers if the workers don't know what they're doing right or wrong.
9. I think employees want to do well with their jobs. I try to keep that in mind while working with them.
10. I try to facilitate their work. That means providing the tools they need to get the job done and being available for questions and help. If I'm not going to be around I make sure they know who to contact and how to reach them.
11. I do have them keeping lists and charts of their progress. This doesn't mean that they will always stick with it, but this should reduce the number of items overlooked while trying to get tasks completed.
    

I really don't know what else I can do. I am trying to take over some of the work that most people find tedious and I've spent a lot of time trying to get things organized and covering bases with what they'll need to do in order to cover the goals before the end of their work period and I'm hoping that they can appreciate the clarity I try to bring to their goals. I think that clear-cut goals give them milestones and a sense of accomplishment. At least I hope that is what it does.

At some point I'm going to try finding a way to get feedback from them on how they think I'm doing as a manager, but I don't know how to do that. If anyone has any ideas I'm open to hear them...