Costly mistakes to avoid making, as a leader

As a leader, you have to lead by example and be a role model for your team. It is not possible to be perfect all the time. When mistakes happen, as a good leader, you should own up for the same and ensure that they don’t happen again. However, you should refrain from committing these costly mistakes when you are a leader, as these can affect your credibility by a large extent.

Not being democratic

Taking decisions on your own, without consulting anybody, and expecting your teammates to obey your orders blindly is a strict no-no. If you thought that was the best way to prove your authority, you are hugely mistaken. When you continue to do this for a while, people will lose interest to work for you, as their opinions and ideas are not valued at all. You will see a huge rate of attrition in your team, and you may be questioned by your senior manager about the same!

Not being practical

When you assign tasks to your team, you have to be very reasonable and practical. You have to understand the strengths and weakness of your team, before delegating jobs to them. Assigning specific, measurable, acceptable, real-time and time-bound goals is the mark of a good leader. When you give too much of work to people with too little time for them to work on the goals, they get pressurized unnecessarily. They start feeling insecure, and their motivation levels go for a toss. As a leader, you cannot afford that. As a leader, you cannot afford that, can you?

Curbing their freedom

When you have assigned tasks to your team with all the details of the required timelines, all you have to do is allow them to work in peace. When you keep on micromanaging their work, they feel intimidated, and they lose their interest to work. A good leader is one who gives his team full freedom for working and one who encourages them to come up with creative ideas to get the work done on time, without any hassles. Not giving them the freedom to work can create a huge negative impact on their productivity.

Biased behaviour

The first thing that you have to learn when you are a leader is to give fair treatment to all the members in your team – both new and experienced. A particular candidate may have been referred by you or may be known to you or maybe an exceptional performer, but that doesn’t mean that you favour him over others while giving responsibilities and growth opportunities. Treat everyone with integrity to earn respect from all quarters.

Not acknowledging good work

Motivation is one of the key reasons for increased productivity and success in any organization. Employees are motivated when they are recognized and appreciated for the good work that they have done. When you ignore their achievements and continue to act as if nothing happened, your team will lose interest in working, eventually. It is still fine if you don’t reward your employees in a public platform, but you have to refrain from reprimanding them in public, as that can dent their morale to a large extent.

(Author unknown)