Leaders in a business account for as much as 70% of the variance of employee engagement. A Gallup poll of 7,272 adults in the United States revealed that one in two employees had left their job at some point in their career to get away from a manager in order to improve overall quality of life. People don’t leave jobs; people leave people!
Effective leadership requires not only doing the right things, but also understanding what not to do. Here are five mistakes to aggressively avoid.
Critical Mistake #1: Failing to Schedule Time for Learning Conversations
You do what you schedule. When you listen, you learn. Leaders should only be doing what no one else can do and no one can listen to your team members like you.
Schedule regular opportunities to ask clear, concise and clarifying questions to your team members and then discipline yourself to actively listen. This will provide you with vital intelligence to implement two of the main functions of a leader: 1.) remove obstacles and 2). provide resources.
How can you know the true obstacles that are impeding success and the actual resources needed by your team if you aren’t consistently scheduling highly interactive learning conversations?
Critical Mistake #2: Failing to Consistently Affirm
One of the most effective tools to embolden, motivate and energize your team is the incredible power of affirmation. Affirming is simply catching people doing things right and TELLING them about it. Don’t just think it; express it!
The effective leader is always on the lookout for opportunities to answer the soul-felt questions in the mind of their team members, “Do I matter?” and “Does what I do around here matter?” Answer those questions by being specific about your team member’s positive actions. Always tie the positive action you observed to the beneficial business outcome.
Critical Mistake #3: Misdiagnosing
If you are always making decisions in business as if you live in the emergency room, then the health of your business is going to be in a constant state of trauma. Employees and management will be stressed out, and they can only keep up that pace for a while. A proper diagnosis of the “ailments” of your business is required to ensure proper business health. This necessitates gathering appropriate and accurate information and taking preventative steps to treat issues before they land you in the business emergency room.
Many business owners or executives seek to bring in outside help to “treat” a problem that has been improperly, inadequately or incorrectly diagnosed. Before assistance is formally acquired, they should answer the question: “What do you want to accomplish?” With this simple question clarified, a decision can be made on what is the fastest and the most effective way to achieve the desired outcome.
Critical Mistake #4: Wearing the Wrong Hat
Vision caster, trainer, monitor, cheerleader, fixer, disciplinarian — which hat do you wear? All of them and more!
This dilemma is further impacted by the maturity, or immaturity of your team. The challenge is not only in knowing what hat you are to wear, but it’s also critical to wear the right hat at the right time. Companies and teams go through maturation cycles. You need to be aware of how much direct oversight and involvement your team requires. When your team matures and is highly functioning, your style shifts to free rein leadership as you equip the team to be self-sustaining.
Your style shifts. Your hats change. Your leadership flexibility is regularly challenged.
Critical Mistake #5: Not Taking Responsibility
There are things you cannot control. Stop wasting time and precious emotional energy on these things. There are things you can influence. Stop being passive on the things you can influence.
There are things you can control. Stop making excuses for the things you can control. Get busy and act! Take responsibility for your own actions, attitudes and words. Leverage your influence as a leader. This requires you to lead by example.
Avoid these five common critical mistakes and leverage your powerful positive influence as a leader. As you do, instead of people withdrawing, disengaging or leaving, they will passionately follow you and be more dedicated to the company’s success.
About the Author: David Waits, founder of Waits Consulting Group, Inc., is a highly sought-after consultant, speaker and author. As a proven expert in developing powerful initiatives that revolutionize culture, David helps his clients create a thriving organizational environment that facilitates rapid growth, innovative development and on-going profitability. He has worked with clients in all 50 states, including Quest Diagnostics, General Dynamics, Major League Baseball, Walmart, Walt Disney World and numerous other world-class organizations. For more information, visit www.DavidWaits.com.
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