MANAGEMENT BEHAVIORS TO AVOID

“People leave bosses, not companies.”

We’ve all heard this truism in corporate leadership discussions.

If you find yourself constantly looking over the shoulders of your employees and spending lots of time telling them what to do, chances are, you are a micromanager. While your defense might be, “Nothing gets done right if I don’t tell them what to do,” the cause of the problem resides with that person staring back at you in the mirror.

The costs to your team and firm from this behavior are extremely high concerning morale, turnover and its contribution to a poor working environment.

Criticizing Employees in Public

Educational professionals have known for years that the best policy is to praise publically and to discipline privately. By criticizing or reprimanding an employee in public you are displaying toxic behavior.

This toxic behavior demoralizes the individuals on the receiving end of your public dressing-down events and positions you as a truly miserable manager in the eyes of the rest of your team.

Feedback is a powerful performance tool. However, when it is misused or abused, it is toxic to morale and performance. The criticism that is not specific is meaningless. The same goes for criticism that is not based on actual observed behaviors but rather an implied poor attitude.

Most managers do not receive feedback on their feedback delivery, and many have never been trained to employ this powerful performance tool. Learning to recognize bad feedback habits and striving to eliminate them for carefully developed constructive and positive feedback is essential for your success and for building a healthy working environment where individuals feel respected and appreciated.

Claiming Credit for the Work of Team Members

I hear about this behavior regularly, and I am always shocked at the brazen theft of ideas and accomplishments by a significant number of incompetent managers. This behavior is guaranteed to destroy all trust and stifle creativity and innovation. Effective managers learn to shine the spotlight squarely on others instead of stealing the spotlight.

Give credit, never take it, unless you are taking credit for failure.

Covering your rear by blaming others for a problem on your team is the mirror opposite of claiming credit for the successes of others.

Remember, when you point a finger at someone, you have three pointing back at you.

Identify Your Managerial Bad Habits. There is some truth in the reality that poor managers don’t care enough to seek out feedback on their performance. Nonetheless, many managers aspire to improve and appreciate input even if it is uncomfortable or negative. Here are some ideas managers can employ to help identify some behaviors they should change or cease.

Why do well-intentioned people become bad managers?

These bad managers habitually put their own self-interest ahead of their team’s best interest.
They cover their ass to look good to upper management, even if it comes at the expense of supporting their team.
They don’t want to know the truth of how their team feels and employee satisfaction because they’re scared of negative feedback, and how it would personally feel to hear those things.
They take credit from others and feel entitled to more privileges, leeway, and benefits because they feel they’ve worked harder than anyone else on their team.
They damaged their team’s trust, and as a result, affected employee engagement.



Surely, taking responsibility for your team’s hardships and treating them as your own means more time, effort, and energy on your part. But that’s what the best leaders do: They do the hard thing because it’s the right thing. They put their team’s best interest before their own, instead of the other way around.
This is what separates The Boss You Don’t Want to Be from The Boss Everyone Wish They Had.
Which are you?