How many of these mistakes are you or your managers making in your business? Are you inadvertently creating and facilitating mediocrity in your team by doing any of these common management mistakes?
FREE Book Chapter “The Management Matrix” 5 Keys to Being a More Effective Manager
Is your management style breeding mediocrity?
Now, before reacting and saying, “never, not me!” I’ve worked with over 300 businesses over the last decade and I’m yet to see one that wasn’t making at least a few of these mistakes at some point.
Most were made unintentionally, of course, but they still resulted in mediocre team performance.
So, if any of these mistakes sound familiar… then you’ve just taken the first step toward proactively fixing them – being aware and conscious of them.
Mistake #1: No Performance Metrics
It’s easy to manage something when you’re measuring it. When you’re not, there’s no way to know exactly how effective a process or a person is being.
You can’t accurately assess:
- How that process or person compares to others
- How much tangible progress has been made
- What needs to be done to improve
Furthermore, if you’re not measuring it, then there’s no way that your team is either. At best, you can only hope for mediocre results.
Mistake #2: Constantly Accepting Excuses
Nothing breeds mediocrity more than a culture of making excuses.
Excuses rarely reflect reality, especially when they keep recurring.
If you or your managers accept excuses, you’re allowing and giving permission for mediocre or substandard levels of performance.
You’re also sending the message that this kind of behavior is acceptable and acceptable behavior keeps occurring!
Mistake #3: Reacting When Emotion Is High
Good decisions are rarely made when emotions are high.
A common management mistake is to react in the heat of the moment.
If your team come to expect an overreaction from you or their manager, they will hold back. They will avoid taking responsibility or ownership and they will do the bare minimum to avoid causing trouble.
Rather, take some time to respond objectively when emotions have settled and the facts, circumstances a full situation is clear.
Mistake #4: Lack Of Regular Communication
A huge mistake that’s all too common is leaving your team in the dark about what’s going on.
Have you ever held back information:
- To shield team from bad news?
- Because you deemed certain information not important/relevant enough?
If so, there’s a real chance that you’re cultivating mediocrity.
Without clear communication and especially feedback, people feel uncertain, they feel uneasy, and they feel like they are not being listened to or appreciated.
Creating an open channel with regular communication will greatly improve team engagement and productivity as it creates a culture of trust and responsibility.
Mistake #5: No Development Plan
If you want your team to perform at ever increasing levels, then they need regular training and development.
A good development plan should put a specific quarterly focus on developing a particular skill or attribute. At the very least, each person on your team needs some kind of training that’s over and above “on-the-job learning” to ensure they are growing, improving and getting better.
A wise man once said:
“You can spend valuable time, money and resources training somebody and they leave…
or don’t… and they stay.”
Which would you prefer?
Action Points:
Now that you know what the 5 most common management mistakes are…
How many of them are you making?
and more importantly…
If you want to encourage and foster excellence in your business, then what are you going to do to fix or avoid them?
FREE Book Chapter “The Management Matrix” 5 Keys to Being a More Effective Manager
