Develope your own style, I'd say

Develope your own style in people management. You don't have to be a copycat of your predecessor, let alone his style did not work well as you know.

As life long employment gradually disappears from our lives, the personal engagement among coworkers, and that between employees and  employers nowadays are not that much important as they were in the old days.

Treating your subordinates with fairness, decency and respects means more than cooking shish kabob for them.