Are You Making One of These Leadership Mistakes?
Giving your team a strong, motivating place to work is one of the foundations of being a good leader. Bringing out the best in each of your employees is another.
These big picture goals are lofty. They’re also daunting enough to sometimes steer even the best leaders off course as they try to find their leadership style. If you’re struggling to keep your team motivated, here are five mistakes you might be making as a leader.
1. Not Delegating
It’s easy to get trapped in the comfort zone of doing everything yourself. After all, if you do it, you know it’ll get done right, right? Not quite.
Not delegating means burning yourself out, missing deadlines, and ultimately, sacrificing quality of work. By sharing tasks with your team, you’re better able to focus on the high level jobs that need your attention while giving your employees more responsibility.
This added responsibility serves another purpose too. It helps your team feel more valued, and therefore, more motivated to do well. This helps you, the leader, inspire a happier and more productive workplace, all because you took a few tasks off your to-do list.
2. Not Communicating Well
Your team needs to be in-the-know about what you expect and the goals you’re working toward. Without proper communication, your employees will show up every day without purpose.
In today’s digital age, it’s easier than ever to keep people in the loop about what’s happening in your office. It’s also easy for communications to get lost in the shuffle because of the many ways we have to reach out to each other.
Come up with a communication plan and let your team know how you’ll be relaying important information. This can be via email, text message, an instant message app such as Slack, or even an in-office bulletin. Regardless of how it’s done, let your team know how they can expect to hear from you so they never miss an important message.
3. Not Encouraging Work/Life Balance
Like you, your employees have lives outside the workplace; they have family, friends, and hobbies. As a leader, it’s up to you to help promote the balance between those important outside factors and the work at hand.
Encouraging work/life balance means giving your team the tools they need to achieve harmony between their job and personal world. For example, if you can offer flexible work options, allow the parents on your team to work from home when a child is sick instead of having to take a full day off. Or give your team more flexibility to manage their schedules with a scheduling app. This way, they can adjust quickly to life’s ever changing demands without relying on you to find a replacement for their shift.
4. Not Making Work Fun
Does it feel like a chore for your employees to walk into the office and start tackling their to-do list? If so, you’re making a big mistake as a leader.
Work shouldn’t feel like a four-letter word. To get the most out of your team, work should feel encouraging, motivating, and inspirational. Keep work on the fun side by offering in-office perks. Or, you can gamify the work experience by hosting friendly competitions between team members.
The goal is to keep work exciting so your team is encouraged when they show up every day.
5. Not Encouraging Innovation
The world is in constant flux. What worked yesterday is outdated today. Give your employees the room to embrace new ideas and systems on the job. By encouraging innovation in your office, you’re more likely to come up with new solutions that’ll ultimately make your office and your company a better, more productive place.
Change Up Your Routine
If any of these mistakes sound like you, you might be stifling your employees' success at work. Change up your routine, embrace innovative leadership styles, and make work fun again by avoiding these common leadership mistakes.
