Habits That Are Driving Your Team Crazy

While it could be said that management rests on a separate level, and that it is discouraged for management to become friends with employees, there are still habits some managers might adopt that employees are not thrilled about. It is easy to fall into any one of these habits, and breaking them can also be quite difficult, but eliminating these behaviors is essential to building a productive and effective team. 

#1 – Micromanaging Your employees don’t want you hovering over their shoulder watching their every move. They want to know that you can trust them to do their job while making you look good, which in turn will make them look good. Remember that everyone is ultimately working toward the same goal, and micromanaging your team can create hostility, especially when employees don’t feel like they are provided the room to do what they need to. #2 – Under-Managing While micromanagement is definitely a bad habit, under-management can be worse. You’ll need to set guidelines for each employee spelling out exactly what is expected. Under managing a team will create policies that can be too relaxed, and ultimately the work will not get done. Only one person is responsible for ensuring that tasks are getting completed, and that’s management. The burden falls on them. #3 – Over-Committing It’s a good idea to keep the workload of your team balanced. Check with your team daily to make sure you aren’t assigning additional work that just cannot be completed. If you continually over-commit your team, you’ll begin to foster a resentful environment and your turn over rate will increase, which does not look promising to company executives. You should always know where your team currently stands on projects and tasks, and take on additional tasks only when appropriate. #4 – Broken Promises Possibly worst mistake one can make is to promise something and not be able to deliver. Promises can be very small, like promising a day off in the near future. Or promises can be large, like promising a bonus for completing a difficult task and not being able to deliver on said promise. When you don’t follow through, you can create distrust and resentment, which in turn will decrease productivity and work flow. It’s generally not a good idea to make promises. #5 – Creating Your Own Schedule Sure, you’ve worked hard to gain the perks of freedom that come with your management position, and you probably have the ability to create your own schedule, but don’t take advantage of that perk in front of your team. You should make sure that, at the very least, you are coming in before them, especially since leaving early is perceived better than arriving late. #6 – Shutting Your Office Door Another big mistake you can make would be shutting your office door or cutting yourself off from employees. Keeping your door closed creates an “I belong here, you belong there” mentality and makes your employees feel like they can’t come to you when there is an issue or concern. Keep your door open, and if you happen to get invited out after work, for dinner or drinks with your employees, you shouldn’t turn them down every time. Putting in a little out-of-the-office face time will make you seem more human. Management positions are difficult, especially since there is a fine line between balancing your workload, and the wants and needs of your employees. Constantly maintaining an open line of communication with your employees is the key to finding success in your management role.