You may be in charge, but are you really the model leader that you think you are? Here are the tell-tale signs that point to your management style needing a makeover.
1. You are unavailable
Availability is much trickier now than it used to be. The days when the boss grandly stated “my door is always open” before retiring into his private office, confident that he would not be disturbed, are largely a distant memory. In any case, an open door policy is not much use when your team are either working from home or emailing from a remote wi-fi pick up point. Being in charge has always been about communication but now you have to master the art of doing it in over a dozen different ways. Holding a meeting is still an effective approach.
2. You cannot remember the last time you said “sorry” or “thank you”
Not original but praising your team for a job well done is one of the quickest, most effective and most frequently overlooked item in the performance enhancement toolbox.
Apologising, downwards not upwards, can do wonders for perceptions of your EQ and authenticity. Being, or at least appearing, sufficiently confident to admit the occasional small failing in public can make even the most hard-nosed appear more human to their underlings.
3. You have no idea what your team get up to in their spare time
Good teams know and trust one another so a good boss should take an interest in what makes the team tick, on and off duty. However there are some caveats. Do not let interest trip over into nosiness. Try not to snigger when your latest recruit happens to be a male ballet dancer or favour them when they turn out to be a fellow Ultimate Frisbee fan.
4. You pull rank to win arguments
Otherwise known as the “Just Do It” school of management, this style shows you really are a dinosaur. Even the military who invented this in the first place, have given up on it.
5. You do not listen enough, or you listen too much!
New bosses are always told that they need to develop listening skills and give everyone a fair hearing as it greatly builds team harmony. But being a good listener can be hard as it often means keeping quiet and giving your undivided attention to someone who rabbits on about something they know very little about. Bad listeners often do not really hear what they are being told which can result in poor decisions being made.
6. You make easy, unthreatening hires
There is a simple test for this. Would you hire someone knowing that they were better than you and could end up being your boss? You can be a great boss in many ways but failing to hire the best people you can, makes it count for nothing.
7. You never stray beyond your comfort zone
You have been appointed to your current role because of your technical ability but find that the new role requires a broader range of skills, so you carry on just doing what you did before. This actually hinders your own development as well as that of your new team. Expand your comfort zone by constant learning and do not be afraid of admitting that you do not know everything.
8. You turn everything into a competition
Whilst external competition is generally regarded as a good thing, internal competition is often bad for harmony in the workplace and can create a secretive culture where important information is not shared and client interests subverted by internal politics. By making winners out of the few, you inevitably make losers out of the rest.
9. You say “I know this is stupid but we have to do it anyway”
Sooner or later every boss will be asked by their boss to do something that they know stupid or even dangerous. Many will take the easy way out and simply pass the message on with a “it’s not my decision” shrug. If you do that you are a bad boss. The proper response is not blind acceptance or denial of responsibility but intelligent questioning. This approach may not be as career limiting as many seem to think!
10. You forgive failings in yourself but not in others
Why is it that we are ready to turn a blind eye to our own shortcomings whilst holding others so sternly to account for theirs? There are two important reasons of which to be aware. The first is that we often lack self-awareness of our own shortcomings and the other is the huge blow that would be given to our egos by accepting that the very things we hate in others, we display ourselves.
