Four Common Management Mistakes You Could Be Making

Four Common Management Mistakes You Could Be Making

You’re a manager – and chances are, you’re responsible for helping other managers become better at their jobs. This is critical to your business, as managers set the tone for company culture and operations. Important communication is channeled through managers and, when employees leave, the top reason for their resignation is their relationship with their bosses.

Those are some pretty solid reasons to list educating and coaching managers – as well as becoming the best manager you can be – among your leading priorities.

Building Better Managers

Here are four common mistakes to notice, avoid and prevent as you promote management development throughout your company. (It shouldn’t surprise you that they all start with the word failure.)

  1. Failure To Trust

With every employee, a manager should start out from a position of trust. This shouldn’t change, unless people prove themselves unworthy of that trust. Micromanaging is one example of poor manager-employee trust.

  • Effective managers get to know each of their employees as a person. This makes them more responsive to people’s needs, moods and life events.
  • Never throw employees under the bus. When confronted by executive leadership, good managers take responsibility for whatever has gone wrong in their area. If they blame their staff members, those employees will never trust them again. This means acting with dignity, coaching team members to learn from their mistakes, and being a true team player.

  1. Failure to Communicate Effectively

The most effective communication is transparent communication. Unless information is confidential, managers should openly share it with their team members.

  • Communication is a two-way street. Managers should ask for feedback and actively listen as employees provide it. If a manager opts not to implement an employee suggestion, it’s important they let that employee know the reasons why.

  1. Failure to Provide Clear Direction

Managers need to find a balance that enables them to effectively lead their employees, without dictating and while continuously promoting empowerment and engagement.

  • It’s critical to set clear expectations. The next step is regular follow-up and accountability. If employees don’t know what their boss wants, how can they possibly deliver?

  1. Failure to Treat All Employees Equally

It’s not necessary to treat every employee the same, but fairness and objectivity when making business decisions is a must.

  • There’s no room for favoritism. It undermines a manager’s ability to be effective on the job – without exception. While a manager can develop warm, supportive relationships with their direct reports, friendship must be kept in a totally separate compartment. If this guideline is violated, teamwork, productivity and success will be undermined.

Give your management team a boost!

Nobody ever said management was easy. But neither are many of the best things in life, or in business. As you develop yourself and others as not only managers, but leaders, turn to the expert team at Frontline Source Group for guidance and advice. Read our related posts or contact us today to learn more.

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Published on Jun 21, 2018