The Top 10 Biggest Leadership Mistakes To Avoid

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Avoid the Pitfalls and Become a Successful Leader

Successful leaders in the workplace have a large range of responsibilities, including handling workplace conflict and setting an excellent example. However, even good leaders make mistakes, and below are 10 common leadership mistakes to avoid.

1. Being Inaccessible and Unavailable

A poor leader hands-off work and then disappears leaving their team unable to contact them when they have questions. This is a dangerous mistake leaders make. Leaders who assign tasks and walk away seem like they do not care, and their employees feel abandoned. This is the most common leadership mistake to avoid.

A good leader who knows how to delegate properly can and does remain accessible and can easily be contacted. They know how to create the proper channels so they can be reachable for the big issues.

2. Think They Know it All

There is nothing worse than a leader who thinks they know everything. Instead of relying on their team for input, new ideas, and listening to what they are saying, they instead ignore everything and expect everyone around them to do as they are told.

“The best leaders know that they must find ways for their team to contribute and feel valued. A successful They know the team’s overall know-how and expertise outweighs and individual’s know-how, including their own. It’s good for the team to see examples of leaders admitting mistakes, and how they handle fixing them,” says Matthew Scales, a writer at Revieweal and Big Assignments.

3. Managing Conflict Ineffectively

Leaders who avoid conflict create toxic work environments. Conflicts that are not addressed block cooperation and create a workplace that is constantly full of a negative undercurrent.

A great leader understands that conflicts can and will occur and they need to be dealt with swiftly, rather than ignored. They understand that they will not please everyone and they are ok with this. A good leader uses empathetic listening and compassionate communication as skills to fix conflict within the workplace.

Boss stressing female employee is creating a toxic work environment
A leader who cannot handle conflict can create a toxic and unproductive work environment

 

4. Not Understanding Motivation

Another common leadership mistake is not understanding what motivates your team. A bad leader mistakenly believes that extrinsic motivators like bonuses, promotions, and other artificial rewards are what drives workers. Most people, however, are driven by intrinsic motivators, such as learning something new or developing their talents. It’s a huge mistake that a good leader knows to avoid. They instead know how to use intrinsic motivation to drive up employee productivity and help create happier employees.

5. Calling Surprise Meetings

A common leadership mistake is to call surprise meetings, which are usually a waste of time. “If you have no agenda for the meeting, then your meetings will be unproductive, which wastes time” explains Robert Bunn, a productivity blogger at Writingpopulist and Dissertation Service. A successful leader only holds meetings when it is necessary and there is a clear agenda for one. They also only attend ones which will improve their leadership

6. Never Giving Feedback

Bad leaders haven’t learned the art of giving constructive criticism and are sparse with praising their staff. Not only that, a lot of company issues that were chalked up to bad performance and/or incompetence, were largely due to misunderstood employee expectations. If you don’t tell your team member about a mistake they are making, then they can’t fix it.

A successful leader understands how to give personal and well thought out feedback on an employee’s performance. They also recognise that if they give the right feedback in the right way, it can motivate a team member from a good member to a highly productive member.

7. Trying to Do All the Work Yourself

The old saying ‘If you want something done right, you’ve got to do it yourself’ is a not the attitude of a great leader. In fact, it’s a very dangerous attitude for a leader to have at all. When a business leader takes on their employees’ workload, they are doing a massive disservice for their team. It prevents the team from reaching its full potential. Not only that, but it is a recipe for disengagement from your employees.

Challenging your team to take on tasks and perform better each time is something a good leader knows how to do well.

Unmotivated Asian Businesswoman at Work
If the leader tries to do all the work themselves this can leave the team feeling unmotivated

 

8. Uninterested in Listening to Others

A major factor in workplace dissatisfaction comes from employees who feel like their ideas and opinions are not being taken into consideration. A leadership mistake to avoid is not engaging in active listening. When you as a leader don’t follow up on staff concerns or fail to follow through on a commitment or promise you made, the result is a loss of employee trust and loyalty.  A successful leader knows how to listen with empathy.

9. Underestimate the Importance of Emotional Intelligence

Many weak leaders lack emotional intelligence. They fail to see the damage they do when they fly off the handle and let their emotions get the best of them. This is another example of a leadership mistake. It creates a culture that is based around fear and anxiety, which will negatively impact productivity and increases employee turnover.

A successful leader understands the importance of creating a positive atmosphere for their employees.  They utilise their knowledge of how emotional intelligence works with effective communication to work through conflict more efficiently.

10. Expect Perfectionism in Themselves or Others

Expecting perfection every time can lead to employee burnout, is unrealistic, and is also one of the common mistakes leaders make.

A great business leader encourages improvement among their team and understands that there will be failures and setbacks along the way. They recognise that improvements to a newly launched product is an ongoing part of running a good business. No one is perfect, not even in business.

Making mistakes as a leader is part of learning how to be a successful leader. Avoiding these 10 common leadership and management mistakes will help you forge a great team and work environment.  Great leaders make time to learn and grow.

Action: For even more useful content on leadership, check out our ultimate guide on Leadership Skills.

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