Not everyone is born a great a leader, and it is easy to fall into the many traps that leadership can bring.
But the first step is recognising there is a problem and if you can recognise you have a weakness as a leader you are on the first step of improving yourself. If you recognise any of these traits in yourself, or worse, in your boss, they are common, then here is how you can fix them.
- Micromanagement
Not properly delegating tasks and constantly checking on your staff, scrutinising their every piece of work can lead to a negative work environment and make for some very unhappy staff members. To overcome micromanagement you must learn to trust your team. Ensure they are trained up with the skills they need and encourage open communications instead of just settings tasks. Giving your people more responsibility than you are comfortable with is a great way of overcoming micromanagement and helps to build a creative team. - Lack of trust and hypocrisy
If your team do not trust you then you will struggle to get the most out of your team and to even retain them within the company. To build trust you, must always follow up on what you say, if you offer your staff training or mentoring then follow through. It is better to say no or that you are unsure rather than make promises you cannot keep. Playing politics can make your staff think that you are devious so try to be more about goals and objectives. - Needing to be liked
Leaders are people as well, and with that comes the common human need to be liked by others. Often leaders will mistakenly make the popular decisions just to be liked by employees, decisions that may not be best for business. Avoid the need to be liked and strive to communicate openly, explaining decisions and keeping employees up to speed with matters, this will garner respect from your staff. - Failing to set clear expectations
Without clear expectations your employees will have no way to prioritise their work and will have no direction. Set individual goals for workers and explain how they fit into the wider objectives of the company. Employees work better when they now the task adds to the overall success of a company and they will feel part of an entire team and organisation. - Stuck in your ways
All leaders will face this at some point, just because your current ways are working does not mean that there are no better ways of doing what you are doing. Nothing is more frustrating for employees that can see better ways of doing things but just get told “this is the way it’s always been done”. Be open to new ideas, especially those coming from your own team members, but also from other stakeholders and clients. Not only collect feedback on the way you do things, but act on that feedback.