Being a leader is no easy task, it requires an individual capable of handling the pressure to tend to the needs of a team with high emotional intelligence and strategy to succeed. Leaders have a vision for what they want to achieve, it is this vision that creates an environment for collaboration. As a leader, it is very easy to get caught up in assessing the performance of others that we don’t take the time to assess ourselves and our effectiveness.
If leaders do not seem open to feedback, employees won’t tell them their concerns about their effectiveness. This can lead to negative feelings from followers and even cause them to lose sight of what is expected of them. When this is the case, it creates a very negative environment for team members and will inhibit their performance. This is counterproductive to the duties of a leader which is to inspire and utilize team members' skills to accomplish something together.
Leading teams of people are by no means an easy process, and it will test your communication as well as mental stamina. This position is meant for people who have confidence, grit and maintain respect for the people around them. Just like everyone else, leaders are not perfect, and there are a lot of common mistakes leaders make. Taking into account the general common mistakes leaders make, we can categorize them under two umbrellas:
Leadership Mistake - Not Receiving Feedback
Curiosity, asking questions, effective listening, the hunger to learn is what leads to success. Nobody knows everything, no matter who you are there are things you can learn. This same principle applies even to the highest-ranked leaders: learn what you can improve on and what impacts your team's ability to perform. Leaders often don’t look at themselves as the reason for underperformance, instead, they want to look at who is doing what is wrong on their team.
Before you can assess slacking team members, there must be an open discussion about how you as a leader are creating an environment for your team to do their best work.
Ask questions to your team such as:
What are our weak points as an organization?
What are our strengths?
Do you feel you are receiving adequate resources to perform to the best of your ability?
What is something you’d change about our approach?
What are the urgent problems we need to take care of?
There are numerous benefits to gain from asking questions like this to team members. It shows that you care about making your organization an effective workplace. This also allows you to get feedback from individuals working under your leadership. I suggest that leaders ask these questions fairly regularly, to make team members feel valued and learn what works/doesn’t work with your current strategies.
Leadership Mistake - Micromanaging
Commonly, leaders will want to oversee how their team members are executing their operations. However, not giving your team breathing room to do their work will be counterproductive in completing their task effectively. Micromanaging tendencies can stem from many places such as not trusting your team, being insecure about a loss of power in decision making, or simply being overly cautious.
It’s important to know that in cases where your team has access to all the necessary resources, micromanaging will only harm the team's ability to work. A common flaw associated with micromanagers is not delegating adequate tasks to team members, which essentially becomes a waste of resources. Your team is there to help. All members share a common vision of achieving a goal.
Advice to anyone who thinks they micromanage would be:
Build trust with employees
Develop timelines of leaving the team alone
Periodic check-ins
Listen to the needs of team members
Accept that not everything is perfect
Communicate expectations clearly
Applying these will demonstrate your trust in your own decisions to delegate tasks to the right team members. They will also reflect your emotional intelligence as you aren’t getting your ego or lack of trust out of the way. Team members will thrive under a dynamic that allows them to complete tasks to the best of their ability. As the team starts to succeed, their motivation to take on more new challenges will increase and so will their quality of work.
Conclusion
Being a leader does not entail one person doing a job, it requires someone who can make the people who follow them better, to achieve as one. Leading people is not a linear process, it is not a one-size-fits-all and it will challenge you. Whatever endeavors you take on as a leader, always do your best to support your followers and learn as much as you can.
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