If you’re a small staff association executive, you probably rely on just a few people to help the association run smoothly. Maybe those people are a few other full-time employees. Maybe they’re part-time staffers. Or maybe they’re volunteer leaders who know resources are tight and are consistently willing to pitch in.

Whoever helps the organization operate, it’s crucial to know how to make your interactions with everyone go more smoothly.

Some tips for leveraging people’s skills and talents in the best possible ways:

- Treat your staff to lunch occasionally, just to find out what’s up with them. Is someone interested in an area that they don’t currently get to work in? How’s their job satisfaction?

- Have regular staff meetings, at regular times. No matter how few staff members you have, it can always be productive to put all big issues on the table and work on them together, if necessary.

- Use volunteers (and then recognize them!). If you have enthusiastic members who realize how few staff members the association has, they’re often willing to pitch in — especially if big projects are broken down into more manageable tasks for them.

- Benefits, benefits, benefits. Sometimes, the best benefits are the ones we don’t even think about — for example, a flexible telecommuting policy, gym membership or extra paid days off. These benefits can be instrumental in retaining quality staff members.

- Don’t micromanage. Make sure everyone has clear expectations from you and knows what their jobs entail, but don’t micromanage them. As a small staff exec, you probably don’t have time for that anyway, so be sure you hire smart, competent people.

- Let staffers expand their horizons. If someone wants to jump into social media on behalf of the organization, let them do the research and report back, even if their job doesn’t have anything to do with communications or marketing. If someone’s enthusiastic, they’re more likely to do a good job.