5 Terrible Habits Managers must be mindful of
As Frederick W. Smith once said: “A good manager is not a person who can do the work better than his men; he is a person who can get his men to do the work better than he can”. Most employees would do anything to earn the opportunity to get promoted to a higher position in an organization. But why? What makes them yearn to earn this title? Ironically, many aspiring managers do not care to dig deep and find out what makes a good manager. They blindly follow how their bosses behave at the workplace.
It’s like not preparing well enough for the exam but expecting to take a top position. They just want to bag the coveted title of a manager without doing the groundwork. Is it just the respect that comes with the title? Or is it the added responsibility that comes with it? Or, is it simply the feeling of satisfaction in achieving a career milestone? Well, the answer is all of it. It’s the combination of all of these feelings that pushes us hard to rise above our peers and take charge of one of the most crucial positions in an organization.
So, let’s identify habits that we as leaders must try to improve upon:
1. Micromanaging Teams
A survey of Trinity Solutions reports that almost 79% of respondents had experienced micromanagement. Remember how annoyed we may feel when our manager always peek over our shoulders at work? Now, let’s remember all the “nice” things that we uttered in our mouths as we were constantly watched over by our managers many times in a day. The point here is that no employee likes to be micromanaged and a good manager must bear this in mind.
Employees want to be trusted with a certain degree of freedom at work. They want managers to have faith in their skills and abilities to perform an assigned job. Intrusive, observations, manipulation and exhaustive communication send a clear message to employees that managers do not back their capabilities, which can make them feel defeated, paranoid, and unappreciated. No employee can develop his/her skills when managers do not show complete faith in their teams and individuals.
2. Spoon-feeding
Another essential quality of good managers is that they don’t serve everything to their employees on plates. Handholding in initial days is fine. Good leaders develop their employees’ skills in a way that they can resolve the trickiest of situations on their own. Some managers have this tendency of over-providing solutions to their teams. They are quick when it comes to offering solutions that their employees can find themselves with more effort than usual.
This negative habit of spoon-feeding solutions prevents employees from doing all the hard work of seeking the best solution themselves. By always helping employees with “the solutions”, managers are not allowing their team members to put their thinking caps on and take ownership of the problem at hand. Managers need not act like school teacher who is always accessible whenever the team encounters problems.
3. Absence of SMART Goals
The managers’ inability to set SMART goals do not do any team any good. Some managers fail to define goals for their employees who struggle with their work throughout the day. They have no idea why they’re doing work, how they’re doing or what their work means for themselves and the organization they’re working for. They just can’t be productive when they do not have a direction or vision for work.
They also fail to prioritize their work, which means they complete projects and tasks in the wrong order. When employees don’t see career growth in their jobs, they start losing interest and eventually switch jobs. On the other hand, goal-setting too can backfire if objectives are overly ambitious and unattainable. Good managers always set attainable goals for employees and reward them for achieving them.
4. Egoistic Mindset
As the American proverb puts it, “Arrogance is a kingdom without a crown”. Inflated Egos havealways been the main causes of conflict and grief at any workplace. Arrogant managers think that since they drive the show, it’s because they are more skilled and competent than others. Such managers tend to remind their teams of their supremacy to their subordinates with regular intervals. This is certainly not a contemporary leadership style which doesn’t apply in this age.
They think they have the best ideas and information, and use their position to manipulate others. Many employees express anguish over arrogant, egoistic managers who are unfit to lead. In other words, the inflated ego narrows our vision. We lose perspective and we only hear and see what we want to. As a result, managers no longer inspire their team members, which further widens the gap between both sides.
5. Workplace Diseases
Being professionals, we are well aware of workplace politics, Nepotism and Professional Jealousy. It’s disheartening and demoralizing for employees when they already know who’ll be the next person to be promoted to higher positions just because he/she enjoys a close relationship with a manager. Weak leaders are quite good at classifying who they favour over others, irrespective of an individual’s abilities or otherwise. Certainly, this behaviour is not what makes a good manager by any stretch of the imagination.
Managers displaying signs of favouritism at work can disrupt the workplace. This unhealthy practice in the workplace sends the wrong signal to employees, except for those who enjoy the manager’s special attention. People are likely to believe that hard, honest work doesn’t bear fruits because to grow within the organization, an employee would have to earn a place in the manager’s good books.
Final Thought
As John C. Maxwell has put it, “Leadership is not about titles, positions, or flowcharts. It is about one life influencing another”. In a nutshell, being a manager is all about handling not just our work but our team with great responsibility. We are expected to deliver as well as command the respect of our teams. And a good manager knows how to achieve this. They cultivate happiness at work and encourage every employee to be a better version of themselves.
Good managers positively influence the lives of their team members and help them develop their skills. They groom them for senior roles in the organization in the future. No one can become a great manager overnight. One needs to actively make efforts to improve and be consistent in whatever we do at work.
About the Author
Muhammad Sajwani is the Founder and Managing Director of Evolve HR which aims at transforming, enriching and evolving Human Capital of Pakistan, Evolve HR thrives in challenging assumptions that hinder organisational aspirations, by creating innovative solutions that yield maximum impact, scalability & benefit to a wider base of stakeholders. As a Business Coach and Organisational Consultant, Sajwani knows how to combine business insights with people insights to transform organisations and put them on the path to growth.
