NOW! Fail or Thrive Excerpts for Busy Leaders by Ronald D. Sears - HTML preview

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Mistakes Managers Make Managing People

“It’s not about the money. It’s about the people you have and how you’re led.”

Steve Jobs

Excerpts from Susan M. Heathfield

Fail to Get to Know Employees as People. Developing a relationship with reporting employees is a key factor in managing. You don't want to be your employees' divorce counselor or therapist, but you do want to know what's happening in their lives.

Fail to Provide Clear Direction. Managers fail to create standards and give people clear expectations, so they know what they are supposed to do, and wonder why they fail.

Fail to Trust. All managers should start out with all employees from a position of trust. When managers don't trust people to do their jobs, this lack of trust plays out in a number of injurious ways such as micromanaging or constantly checking up is another.

Fail to Listen to and Help Employees Feel That Their Opinions Are Valued. Active listening is a critical management skill. You can train managers in listening skills, but if the manager believes that listening is a way to demonstrate that he or she values people, training is usually unnecessary. When employees feel heard out and listened to, they feel important and respected.

Make Decisions and Then Ask People for Their Input as If Their Feedback Mattered You can fool some of the people. But your best employees soon get the nature of your game and drop out. Good luck getting those employees to engage again.

Fail to React to Problems and Issues That Will Soon Fester If Ignored. Managers have a habit of hoping that an uncomfortable issue, employee conflict or disagreement will go away on its own if they don't provoke it or try to resolve it. Issues, especially among people, get worse unless something in the mix changes.

Trying to Be Friends With Employees Who Report to You. You can develop warm and supportive relationships with employees who report to you. But, you will have difficulty separating the reporting relationship in a friendship.

Fail to Communicate Effectively and Withhold Important Information. The best communication is transparent communication. Sure, some information is company confidential. You may have been asked to keep certain information under wraps for a while, but aside from these rare occasions, share what you know.

Not Treating All Employees Equally. You don't necessarily have to treat every employee the same, but they must feel as if they receive equal treatment. The perception that you have pet employees or that you play favorites will undermine your efforts to manage people.

Throw Employees Under the Bus. Rather than taking responsibility for what goes wrong in the areas that you manage, blame particular employees when asked or confronted by senior leadership.

Additional Reading

101 Biggest Mistakes Managers Make and How to Avoid Them by Mary Albright, & Clay Carr

Point of Reflection

“All men make mistakes, but only wise men learn from their mistakes.”

Winston Churchill