When determining where the success of our organization is coming from, we also look to where we need to make improvements. And typically, a common place for growing organizations to find training opportunities is in their management. Often individuals who are first-time managers are thrown into their new role with little to no management training.
Another issue we see is the role being passed along because of experience that went unvalidated with another organization or firm. This can take place because the other organization may have more lax policies or expectations on the behavior, attitude, and techniques of their managers. To make sure our managers are being efficient we should watch for these red flags and be willing to both call them out and train them new habits to develop success in the role of manager.
1. Comfort with Abrasive Communication
Abrasive managers rub their subordinates the wrong way by displaying behaviors ranging from mild offense to open attack. This management style creates interpersonal friction that often leads to resentment and disrupts the workflow. Typically, managers who are comfortable with abrasive communication are polarizing and can motivate individuals in your organization to find new roles. If your manager can’t communicate a problem or concern without berating, belittling, or yelling at employees, it may be time to consider management training to help your manager communicate constructively.
2. Propagates Office Politics
Office politics kill morale and can lead to a toxic work environment. It comes about through the acceptance and encouragement of drama. Your managers should be doing things to prevent politics, not perpetuate them. Finding that a manager is pitting individuals against one another or gossiping to and with employees about their peers should be a red flag that your manager is not competent in their role and need improvement.
3. Manages with Fear or Intimidation
Too often, managers think employees must be intimidated or shamed into following instructions and avoiding mistakes. However, this is a dangerous management tactic that causes unnecessary stress among employees, leading to a decline in productivity. Employees often are less productive at work as a result of stress in the workplace. Perhaps the manager is intimidated or unsure about how to get results without relying on threats, but no matter the reason, this tactic does not help the team or the organization as a whole perform and grow.
4. Ignores Non-performers
Some managers have difficulties confronting non-performers while others simply ignore them in hopes that underperforming employees will somehow manage to soldier through and change over time by a natural improvement. Meanwhile, everyone else on the team has to pull a little more weight to pick up the slack of the non-performers. This is a dangerous approach that can lead to resentment and low team morale.
5. Has Trouble Delegating Work
No one can take on everything, but sometimes managers believe delegating makes them less important or less productive. So, they cling on to their authority and instead focus on micromanaging their employees. This tactic can have negative effects on the entire organization and often leads to lower quality of work and increased resentment against the individuals at the top. Managers are at their best when they support the productivity of their entire team—at their worst, they hinder that production by micromanaging their efficiency.
6. Steals Credit for the Good and Passes Blame for the Bad
It’s hard to hold a team together when mistakes occur and the temptation to point fingers may be hard to resist. However, good leaders take more than their share of the blame and less than their share of the credit. Unfortunately, many managers have a terrible habit of taking credit for the good and passing the blame for the bad on to their team members. If you have a manager who tends to make excuses to justify themselves and points the blame at their team, you may have a bad manager.
7. Has Trouble Providing Constructive Criticism
Employees have the right to expect that their manager will be able to offer mentorship and direction. When a manager has no problem pointing out their mistakes but provides little to no insight on how to improve, managers lead employees to be discouraged, frustrated, and less productive. Knowing and understanding how a feedback sandwich works is an important step in gauging and learning how to give feedback and criticism that builds individuals.
8. Knows Everything
Arrogance is a dangerous characteristic, to begin with, and it can be toxic when it comes to managing a team. The best managers are open to learning from others and rarely take my way or the highway stance on matters in the workplace. The inability to recognize the limitations of one’s own knowledge and competency is a guarantee of divisive and destructive management. Growth comes from exploring the unknown; when all is known, then individuals descend onto control and micromanagement.
9. Fails to Update the Team
One of the worst mistakes a manager can make is failing to communicate important or relevant information to the team. While there are certainly instances where it’s better to operate on a need to know basis, sharing appropriate updates with the team is important to building trust and team morale. Hiding this information may lead to confusion and unnecessary stress among employees.
10. Expects Subordinates to Mind Read
If a manager expects their subordinates to know what’s coming next but doesn’t do a good job of providing context or guidance, then their subordinates are being set up for failure. This issue may be easily fixed with leadership and communication training to help your manager understand the best way to convey expectations to the rest of their team and how to communicate the why that drives those expectations.
11. Fails to Plan for Future Concerns
Jumping from emergency to emergency is stressful for both the manager and the entire team. Do your managers seem to constantly operate one step away from disaster and can’t seem to get a handle on what needs to be done? If so, now is the time to consider training to improve goal setting and time-management abilities to ensure that the whole team doesn’t suffer from the manager’s poor planning.
12. Pushes Off Decisions to Others
Managers who collect all the information but still can’t seem to make a decision can have negative, far-reaching ramifications on your organization. The lack of decision-making abilities makes your manager look like a poor leader, often causing team members to lose respect for the manager and pushback against any decisions that they place forward.
With everything on your plate, it can be difficult to pick up on some of these behaviors. To ensure that you’re not missing anything, try sending out an employee satisfaction survey to the employees who report directly to your managers. It’s likely that these employees will offer valuable insight into the manager’s performance. If you don’t have a system to do this sort of investigation into your managers, reach out, we’ve got a built assessment procedure to collect this information, measure it, and then present it to the leadership in your organization.
If you feel that your managers need training, reach out to me. Let’s have a conversation about what my bi-monthly Sandler strategic management program looks like and what it can do for you, your managers, and your organization.
If you measure it, you will manage it,
Jim Stephens, President/CEO
Sandler Training
Crossroads Business Development, Inc., Authorized Licensee
Phone 208.429.9275| jim.stephens@sandler.com |
You might also be interested in:
