In this age and time, it is surprising that many company managers still believe they can do whatever they like when running the affairs of a company. What many of them fail to appreciate is that the number-one reason employees leave a company today is because of poor management. Even if other conditions are not too good, many employees always choose to stay with their company if the management is good. When managers are unable to desist from making avoidable management mistakes, the company suffers as a result. Arising from a long-term study of reasons why companies struggle with management issues, here are 7 of the most common management mistakes which come to the fore.
01. Micro-managing: Business experts are always quick to say, "If you hire a person to do a job, give him/her the latitude to do the job." If you can't do that, there is no use hiring the person in the first place. When managers erroneously believe that it is either things are their own way or not done at all, there is a huge problem. It is good to supervise employees but micro-managing them is neither good for employee morale nor productivity. As a manager, it is wrong to believe and act as if there is only one way to carry out a task and that you must make all the decisions.
02. Having irregular and unscheduled meetings: Managing a company is all about orderliness as a precursor for smooth operations. When managers choose to have irregular and unscheduled meetings, they tend to create confusion and disorder. Irregular meetings also manage to send a bad signal that effective communication among team members is not important. A disorganized and confused team is not likely to stand out as an effective team when it comes to productivity.
03. Not delegating effectively: As a manager, your number one job is to get work done through the efforts of others. That means it is inevitable that you have to delegate if you need to have more work done in a shorter time. If out of fear or insecurity a manager decides to delegate less, such a manager is not likely to perform optimally in a highly competitive business environment.
04. Open display of arrogance: Arrogance is one human trait which can ruin a business. When a manager decides to act as if he/she knows it all, then there is a real problem. Just because you are a manager does not make you a superman/woman. Employees can make mistakes but talking down on them and even scolding them publicly amounts to arrogance on the part of the manager. Open arrogance can show up in many other ways but the bottom-line is that it always amounts to total disrespect for the feelings of others. That is why it is not good for any business requiring team efforts.
05. Not keeping promises: It is clearly an irresponsible behavior for a manager not to keep promises. This is because; if you are a manager and you are unable to keep promises, how can you expect those around you to keep theirs? If within any business environment not keeping promises is on, it can breed a culture which promotes lack of accountability within the team. When accountability is lacking, poor team performance is a natural result.
06. Regularly dismissing the opinions and ideas of others: This is another form of arrogance. Dismissing the opinions and ideas of others offhand always paints the picture that the manager is Mr. "know-it-all." That gives the false impression that such a manager is smarter than everyone else within the team. If such impression is left unchecked, over time, other people in the team are likely to stop sharing their ideas willingly with the manager and that could shut innovation completely. Such a scenario can adversely affect the competitive edge the company had hither to been enjoying.
07. Ignoring and tolerating poor performers: In any business requiring team efforts, poor performers are always a drag on the team. If ignored, they are capable of de-motivating the good performers on the team. If tolerated for too long, they could impact negatively on the work of others on the team as well as the overall success of the team. The longer a manager waits to handle their poor performance, the higher the risk of losing the high performers.
Right now, if you are managing a company, maybe one or more of these problems sounds familiar to you. If so, you can make a concise plan on how you can address them or even change them because they are all behavioral problems. No doubt you are aware that changing behaviors takes discipline, commitment and time but it is doable. Doing the needful for the overall health of the company you manage is always a very smart thing to do.
