Avoiding Universal Pitfalls
Experience is the name every one gives
to their mistakes. –
Oscar Wilde
It's often said
that mistakes provide great learning opportunities.
However, it's much
better not to make mistakes in the first place!
In this article,
we're looking at 10 of the most common leadership and management errors, and
highlighting what you can do to avoid them.
If you can learn
about these here, rather than through experience, you'll save yourself a lot of
trouble!
1.
Lack of Feedback
Sarah is a
talented sales representative, but she has a habit of answering the phone in an
unprofessional manner. Her boss is aware of this, but he's waiting for her
performance review to tell her where she's going wrong. Unfortunately, until
she's been alerted to the problem, she'll continue putting off potential
customers.
According to 1,400
executives polled by The Ken Blanchard Companies, failing to provide feedback
is the most common mistake that leaders make. When you don't provide prompt
feedback to your people, you're depriving them of the opportunity to improve
their performance.
To avoid this
mistake, learn how to provide regular feedback to
your team.
2. Not
Making Time for Your Team
When you're a
manager or leader, it's easy to get so wrapped up in your own workload that you
don't make yourself available to your team.
Yes, you have
projects that you need to deliver. But your people must come first – without
you being available when they need you, your people won't know what to do, and
they won't have the support and guidance that they need to meet their
objectives.
Avoid this mistake
by blocking out time in your schedule specifically
for your people, and by learning how to listen
actively to your team. Develop your emotional
intelligence so that you can be more aware of
your team and their needs, and have a regular time when "your door is
always open", so that your people know when they can get your help. You
can also use Management By
Walking Around , which is an effective way to stay in
touch with your team.
Once you're in a
leadership or management role, your team should always come first - this is, at
heart, what good leadership is all about!
3.
Being Too "Hands-Off"
One of your team
has just completed an important project. The problem is that he misunderstood
the project's specification, and you didn't stay in touch with him as he was
working on it. Now, he's completed the project in the wrong way, and you're
faced with explaining this to an angry client.
Many leaders want
to avoid micromanagement .
But going to the opposite extreme (with a hand-offs management style) isn't a
good idea either – you need to get the balance right.
4.
Being Too Friendly
Most of us want to
be seen as friendly and approachable to people in our team. After all, people
are happier working for a manager that they get on with. However, you'll
sometimes have to make tough decisions regarding people in your team, and some
people will be tempted to take advantage of your relationship if you're too
friendly with them.
This doesn't mean
that you can't socialize with your people. But, you do need to get the balance
right between being a friend and being the boss.
Learn how to do
avoid this mistake with our article, Now You're the
Boss. Also, make sure that you set clear
boundaries , so that team members aren't tempted to
take advantage of you.
5.
Failing to Define Goals
When your people
don't have clear goals, they muddle through their day. They can't be productive
if they have no idea what they're working for, or what their work means. They
also can't prioritize their workload effectively, meaning that projects and
tasks get completed in the wrong order.
Avoid this mistake
by learning how to set SMART goals for
your team. Use a Team Charter to
specify where your team is going, and detail the resources it can draw upon.
Also, use principles from Management by
Objectives to align your team's goals to the
mission of the organization.
6.
Misunderstanding Motivation
Do you know what
truly motivates your team? Here's a hint: chances are, it's not just money!
Many leaders make
the mistake of assuming that their team is only working for monetary reward.
However, it's unlikely that this will be the only thing that motivates them.
For example,
people seeking a greater work/life
balance might be motivated by telecommuting
days or flexible working. Others will be motivated by factors such as
achievement, extra responsibility, praise, or a sense of camaraderie.
To find out what
truly drives your people, read our articles on McClelland's
Human Motivation Theory and Theory X and
Theory Y . Then, take our test "How Good Are
Your Motivation Skills?" to learn how to
be a great motivator of people.
7.
Hurrying Recruitment
When your team has
a large workload, it's important to have enough people "on board" to
cope with it. But filling a vacant role too quickly can be a disastrous
mistake.
Hurrying
recruitment can lead to recruiting the wrong people for your team: people who
are uncooperative, ineffective or unproductive. They might also require
additional training, and slow down others on your team. With the wrong person,
you'll have wasted valuable time and resources if things don't work out and
they leave. What's worse, other team members will be stressed and frustrated by
having to "carry" the under-performer.
You can avoid this
mistake by learning how to recruit
effectively , and by being particularly picky about
the people you bring into your team.
8.
Not "Walking the Walk"
If you make
personal telephone calls during work time, or speak negatively about your CEO,
can you expect people on your team not to do this too? Probably not!
As a leader, you
need to be a role model for your team. This means that if they need to stay
late, you should also stay late to help them. Or, if your organization has a
rule that no one eats at their desk, then set the example and head to the break
room every day for lunch. The same goes for your attitude – if you're negative
some of the time, you can't expect your people not to be negative.
So remember, your
team is watching you all the time. If you want to shape their behavior, start
with your own. They'll follow suit.
9.
Not Delegating
Some managers
don't delegate, because they feel that no-one apart from themselves can do key
jobs properly. This can cause huge problems as work bottlenecks around them,
and as they become stressed and burned out.
Delegation does
take a lot of effort up-front, and it can be hard to trust your team to do the
work correctly. But unless you delegate tasks, you're never going to have time
to focus on the "broader-view" that most leaders and managers are
responsible for. What's more, you'll fail to develop your people so that they
can take the pressure off you.
To find out if
this is a problem for you, take our interactive quiz, How Well Do
You Delegate? If you need to improve your
skills, you can then learn key strategies with our articles, Successful
Delegation , and The
Delegation Dilemma .
10.
Misunderstanding Your Role
Once you become a
leader or manager, your responsibilities are very different from those you had
before.
However, it's easy
to forget that your job has changed, and that you now have to use a different
set of skills to be effective. This leads to you not doing what you've been
hired to do – leading and managing.
Our articles Now You're
The Boss and From
Technical Expert to Manager provide more
information on the additional skills that you need to develop to be an
effective manager. Make sure that you learn these skills – you'll fail if you
try to rely on technical skills alone, however good they are!
Key Points
We all make mistakes, and there are some mistakes that leaders and
managers make in particular. These include not giving good feedback, being too
"hands-off," not delegating effectively, and misunderstanding your
role.
It's true that making a mistake can be a learning opportunity. But,
taking the time to learn how to recognize and avoid common mistakes can help
you become productive and successful, and highly respected by your team.
- See more at:
http://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/leadership-mistakes.htm#sthash.QegEzKCj.dpuf
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