MANAGEMENT - 7 Common Mistakes Managers Make (and How to Avoid Them)

By James Harwood

Managers play a key role for any business. Growth and success of an organization will largely rely on their expertise and experience to manage certain tasks. Unfortunately, mistakes are inevitable in the business world. Whether you’re an amateur or veteran in managing, you are bound to make mistakes as you further your career. In addition, a study shows that over half of the manager population received no training whatsoever prior entering their respective fields of work.

To guide you in becoming a good manager, here is a list of the 7 most common mistakes that managers make and tips to avoid them.

Micromanaging

New managers perceive the urge to assert their newly established authority and entrench their role as the boss. They also feel the need to guarantee their group is victorious in all tasks. They suddenly find themselves accountable for the actions and performances of their employees. As a result, they resort to micromanaging to feel their power.

Tip: No one wants to be micromanaged. Doing so will turn your employees against you and create a bad environment for your organization. Delegate, create deadlines, and hone expectations, but allow the employee to decide how he/she will be completing the task.

Insufficient directions

This is another common mistake that may arise when you take micromanaging to the extremes. While you should avoid micromanaging, leaving your workers with scarce information to work on isn’t good either. Workers should be fully briefed of what they should expect from respective projects, what their objectives should be, and what the standards of success should be.

Tip: Call out your employees and discuss what the desired results and goals should be and the most efficient ways to reach it. Inquire if any employee has ideas of their own regarding how best to complete the task, etc.

Neglecting employees’ personal problems

New managers are usually promoted due to their outstanding project management skills and relevant professional attributes. In most cases, they do not have any training or experience on how to handle personal issues in the workforce. Nonetheless, if performance or behavioral issues go unresolved, the business can suffer greatly for it.

Tip: Always address these problems immediately. Talk with the employee/s in private and ask your Human Resource department for advice.

Taking on too much

Driven to demonstrate their qualifications and worthiness for a promotion, new managers tend to take on too much work. Eventually, it blows up in their face. Managers assume they will be able to maintain recent quality levels and even accept new tasks concurrently. They do not consider the chunk of time it consumes to manage workers.

Tip: Learn how to balance your roles. Know when you need to refuse any more projects or unreasonable time frames for completion of projects.

Being stagnant

This is a mistake commonly made by newly promoted internal managers. While it isn’t exactly necessary to forget your old friends and co-workers or undergo a complete personality makeover, you should be ready to adapt to changing environments.

Tip: New management should avoid gossips or whining and display a positive and professional attitude at once.

Too many alterations

New managers exaggerating on the previous tip may end up making this mistake. Making too many changes after a promotion can turn out bad for you.

Tip: Take time to make the necessary adjustments entailed from your new role and establish solid relationships first prior considering making any significant changes.

Not abiding to human resource laws and policies

While it is committed unintentionally, new managers tend to break regulations set forth by their HR department. While new managers are aware of major laws like racial discrimination, they sometimes forget to account for minor acts of racism, sexual harassment, and sexism.

Tip: Always ask questions appropriate for the subject, be it an interview or monthly assessment. In addition, know what queries you can and can’t ask to your employees.