Common leadership mistakes

“People ask the difference between a leader and a boss. The leader leads and the boss drives” – Theodore Roosevelt.

Leadership is elucidated as an art of motivating a group of people to act to achieve a common goal. In a business context, it means directing staff and colleagues with a focus on achieving predetermined organizational goals. Several experts believe that leadership is about getting the job done through others. If they only have to order and get the job done through the efforts of employees, why do many leaders fail? It’s hard? Yes! Is it worth the efforts? I bet, YES! So why do some leaders fail despite dedication, determination, devotion, and hard work? The irony is that the most common howlers are also the simplest.

1. Excessive control: – Employees do not like micromanagement. It makes them feel suspicious. A great leader has a clear long-term and short-term plan, knows how to delegate, sets clear expectations of himself for each employee, and focuses on the outcome rather than the process. In addition to this, it makes the team more dependent, they feel a loss of autonomy that discourages them from making decisions, restricts their innovation, on the other hand, managers while focusing on pity things can lose attention of the big picture and suffer. of mental and physical exhaustion.
2. Lack of delegation: – Many managers often do not delegate because they are always looking for perfection which can be demoralizing for the staff. By striving for perfection, they set unrealistic expectations of others that become impossible to achieve and gradually lead to dissatisfaction of both subordinates and their managers. A great leader seeks excellence, prioritizes his task and delegates. They allow their employees to make mistakes, correct them under their supervision, learn from them and make sure they don’t repeat them. Developing a ‘direct failure’ approach is crucial.
3. Unclear goals and expectations: – Many departments face changes due to the continuous modifications in plans and policies made by top management and they never knew what to expect from themselves and from others. A good leader always identifies: –
4. What are the organization’s vision, goals, and mission?
5. What are the key responsibilities and authorities of each employee in your department?
6. What should they expect of others and of themselves?
7. What may be the future opportunities or threats/obstacles for your department and organization?
8. Who and when to ask for help?
9. How is each staff member in your department performing and
10. Finally, CHANGE MANAGEMENT.
4. Failure to learn, unlearn and relearn: – The best leaders are constant learners. Many organizations spend millions of dollars a year on various leadership, communication, and motivational development programs. Although the program is excellent, many leaders do not implement what they have learned. Continuous learning has various mental, physical, moral, emotional and spiritual benefits. Just as you can easily accommodate changes, it kills monotony, gives a sense of accomplishment and pride, fuels creativity and innovation, encourages trying new methods of getting things done, and exploring alternative ways of getting work done faster and more efficiently. efficient. So the rule of thumb is: the best leaders are full-time lifelong learners.
5. Inefficient two-way communication: – Many managers assume that they are born with excellent communication skills that include both verbal and non-verbal communication; Few do not feel the need to improve their communication skills, while; remaining assumes that others will always interpret the message the way they want, which unfortunately may not be true. If any organization is facing chronic issues like low employee morale, productivity, engagement; higher employee turnover, absenteeism, stress level, mistrust; inefficient teamwork or collaboration; Dissatisfied customers and a lack of useless and poor communication could be the root cause of the problem. A team feels valued when their leaders share vital information needed with them. An excellent leader incorporates various techniques that enable team members to access even the smallest information, collaborate with another team/department member, share their opinions, insights, ideas, suggestions, and thoughts regardless of organizational hierarchy, and develop a strong two-way line of communication. healthy open communication
6. Inability to adapt/adjust: – Average leaders often tend to continue doing what they’ve been doing to repeat their past successes, but sadly with the changing time, if you do what you’ve done, you won’t even get what you’ve got. I mean, your formula for success doesn’t necessarily work. Even the leaders of big companies globally like Kodak, Blackberry, Yahoo, Nokia, Xerox, IBM, Toshiba, Hitachi, Motorola failed to adapt and innovate, resulting in huge losses and business failures. There are also some great examples from most responsive companies. Companies like DuPont, Hewlett Packard, Berkshire Hathaway, Apple, Netflix, Yellow Pages, Amazon have over the years transformed their business model to survive, grow and succeed. Anyone, in fact, every department/project/process requires adaptability. We work in a dynamic world, where change is the only constant variable, so to respond quickly to these changing circumstances, adaptability is key!
7. Lack of Appreciation:- Evil Leaders never give credit to their team or individual employee when they really deserve it. They prefer to use ‘I’ for success and ‘we/he/she/they’ for failure. Best leaders use non-monetary ideas most of the time to value their people. They use simple techniques like saying ‘thank you’, sending emails or a handwritten thank you note, appreciating, acknowledging and publicly acknowledging the efforts of teams/individuals, providing opportunities to learn, grow, improve, empowering them with more challenging tasks and responsibilities . (yes, it works), or even giving them the opportunity to contribute in making key decisions to motivate them. Appreciation is the best motivation. An employee who feels appreciated is highly motivated and meets established standards.
8. Inability to foster team spirit: – Smart leaders work cooperatively with their team to achieve predetermined group goals, while poor leaders fail to identify their core competency because success comes from the team, not from a single individual manager. Here are some highly successful techniques that will help the leader do better with her team:

• Create joint goals.
• Celebrate success together, even failures.
• Involve team members in problem solving.
• Provoke cooperation, common interest, values ​​and mutual trust.
• Recognize the skills, experience, strengths and weaknesses of each team member.
• Jointly strive for excellence.
• Address and mutually resolve the management of divergent interests/conflicts.
• Aim for a ‘win-win’ situation in any negotiation.
• Build an upbeat work environment with a passionate ‘can do’ attitude.
• Lastly, walk-the-talk.

9. Don’t listen: – Honestly, answer the following questions to find out if your boss has good listening skills: –

YES

NOT

has.

Often interrupts the conversation.

b.

immediately jump to conclusions

against

He/she immediately answers/gives advice

d.

He/she does not respond at all

me.

Interpret things only from their perspective.

F.

He/she during any conversation is often distracted by other office work.

gram.

He/she often changes the topic/topic of discussion

h.

you lack empathy

If the answer to most of these questions is yes, be careful, you’re stuck with a bad boss who doesn’t know how to listen.

Although there are numerous advantages of effective listening, such as you can easily gather information before making vital decisions, help resolve conflicts, build mutual trust, respect, motivate others, and foster a pleasant work environment, but many managers still do not They understand the value of listening. . This may be because they are poor listeners, nervous, easily distracted, prefer selective listening, don’t value their team members’ ideas, a “know-it-all” attitude, or simply because I don’t even know they are bad listeners. . But the good news is that with consistent focus; practice, hard work, and determination can improve active listening skills.

Simply put, mistakes are part of being human and leaders are human beings too, but a wise leader learns from the mistakes of others and makes sure they never repeat them. For the smooth and successful achievement of organizational goals, factors such as lucid vision, proper plan, fortitude, and most importantly, providing and receiving genuine feedback that reveals what the employer and employees are doing right and what attributes need improvement.