Managers at all levels make significant mistakes in their daily management of people they employ. A lot of managers lack the fundamental training that makes them manage people efficiently.
According to 1,400 executives polled by The Ken Blanchard Companies, failing to provide feedback is the most common mistake that leaders make. While receiving feedback might be nerve-wrecking, it is an essential process to ensure the development of an employee. Most managers shy away from providing their team members with constructive criticism. Giving regular feedback, both positive and negative is part of the job as a manager or a leader and avoiding it would be as negligent as a receptionist who ignores the phone when it rings.
As a leader, it is easy to get wrapped up in your own workload and do the mistake of not being available to your team. People must come first because without you being available, they will not feel valued. Your team members need your time, support and guidance in order for them to be able to meet their objectives.
According to a recent study conducted by Willis Towers Watson, half of the managers fail to set effective employee goals. When your team fails to have clear goals set, they muddle through their day. Employees cannot be productive if they have no idea what they are working for or what their work means. They also cannot prioritise their workload effectively which might jeopardise several projects.
Some managers don't delegate because they feel that no one apart from themselves can do their job properly. You can read more about the fear of delegation here. This can cause huge problems as the work bottlenecks around them which will cause you to burn out and become stressed as a leader or a manager. Delegation does take a lot of effort and it can be hard to trust your team to do the work correctly. However, it is crucial to delegate work to be able to concentrate on the broader view that you are responsible for as a leader.
Once you become a leader, your responsibilities are very different from those you had before. It is easy to forget your job has not changed. You need to always remember that your responsibilities are now very different from those you had before. You need to always carry the can for what happens under your guidance, the bad as well as the good. Being a leader means having accountability for whatever happens.
Taking the time to learn how to recognise and avoid the most common management mistakes will help you become productive, successful and highly respected by your team.
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