These 17 leadership mistakes could severely limit the quality and quantity of your team’s output.
- Not having a clearly stated goal, written down and visible to the whole team. Goals are the guidance system for teams that draw them forward.
- Not having an inspiring vision for your team. A picture of the group feeling proud of how they behave and what they have achieved.
Visions are the wellspring of endless energy for teams - You do not start your one-to-ones by asking your reports how they are and what challenges are bugging them.
They need to get what’s bugging them off their chests before they become open to listening to what you want to say. - You do not know some important personal details about your team members. Personal information shows that you really care about them as people.
- You do not go out of your way to catch people you work with doing something right so that you can congratulate them on their good work.
- You fail to organize your time to allow yourself sufficient time to think.
Giving yourself proper thinking time is the way to stay ahead of the game. - You do not have a personal learning program to ensure your continued development as a leader.
Improvement is accumulative. By learning a little every day you will learn a lot during the year. - You do not create a safe space for your team. You should recognize that mistakes happen and when they do people should not be castigated and made to look stupid.Mistakes should be treated as learning opportunities for the whole team.
Danny made a simple error, it was a careless mistake.
At the next team meeting the leader made Danny stand up and then described his mistake in jeering tones. The whole team laughed dutifully at Danny who felt belittled.
Two weeks later, Stef, one of the stars of the team, made a similar mistake. Rather than risk public humiliation Stef handed in her resignation.
9. Your team is not invested in Kaizen culture to ensure their output is on a path of continuous improvement.
A Kaizen culture makes everyone feel empowered and important. It also keeps everyone on their toes looking for opportunities to improve.
10. You fail to pay attention to your body language.
You can always make yourself and everyone else feel good by ensuring that you look cheerful and positive – even when things are not going as well as you would like.
11. You don’t start your communications by asking yourself, “What’s in it for the audience?”
Note: you should always put the main benefit first to capture the reader’s attention.
12. You change your mind frequently without giving reasons for your change of direction.
Change upsets people, so they need to know the reasons why things will be different.
13. You micro-manage your team, constantly interfering and badgering people.
Micromanagement gives the impression that you do not trust them to do their work.
14. You do not ask people to work out their own answers to questions.
By depriving them of the opportunity to think for themselves you deny them development opportunities to be creative and work out their own solutions.
15. You do not delegate at every possible opportunity.
Delegation gives people opportunities to learn and grow.
16. You would rather spend time with your boss than with your team.
This type of behavior shows that you care more about your personal career than the development of your team.
17. You do not encourage feedback.
Feedback is the breakfast of champions. It is the best way to get an honest appraisal of how well you are performing.
Kristie made a mistake.
Her leader said to the team: “I’m pleased that Kristie has been open about this and given us all an opportunity to help her as well as to learn and improve. Now, can I have your thoughts and suggestions about other possible ways that we could do this in the future that would produce a positive outcome?”
The team discussed several possible alternatives and decided on a new, stronger operating procedure.
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This post was previously published on I Wanna Be.
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You may also like these posts on The Good Men Project:
 White Fragility: Talking to White People About Racism |
 Escape the “Act Like a Man” Box |
 The Lack of Gentle Platonic Touch in Men’s Lives is a Killer |
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