4 ways you’re driving your employees crazy

There are many different management styles and personalities. There are great ways to be a boss, and a lot of awful ways. Employees leaving may not be a job problem but may signal a management problem. Here are a few ways you may be driving your employees crazy.

You act like the smartest person in the room (and you’re not): A good leader knows how important it is to surround themselves with smart(er) people. There are many different areas of your business and you can’t be the know-it-all who isn’t open to new ideas in these areas. If you’ve hired the right people around you, you should be able listen to their new and innovative ideas.

You’ve heard of micromanaging and yet you still do it: There’s been roughly a billion (definitely an estimate) articles written about the dangers of micromanagement, and yet they haven’t gotten through to you. You have employees who are experienced and talented in their areas of expertise, and yet you feel the need to tell them how to do their job. They know what they’re doing. Let them do it.

You like scheduling spur-of-the-moment meetings: There’s absolutely nothing wrong with the occasional meeting. Sometimes you and your staff aren’t on the same page. But meetings need to be announced and scheduled in advance. These last-minute meetings aren’t very considerate and they tell your staff that your schedule is the only schedule that matters.

You only know one type of feedback: Sometimes negative feed is necessary. The problem is that you don’t understand the concept of positive feedback. Positive feedback is as good or better for employee morale and motivation as negative feedback is for correcting errors. And if you’re going to tell an employee every little thing they’ve done wrong, at least be smart enough to not do it in front of other employees. That’s just bush league.

 

John Pettit

John Pettit

John Pettit is the Managing Editor for CUInsight.com. Through news, community, press, jobs and events, he keeps credit unions digitally informed throughout the day. Web: www.cuinsight.com Details