Management Mistakes to Avoid

As part of the shop floor or a sales team, employees quickly learn who their bosses are. Depending partially on what generation an employee represents, they will either respond well to authority, or question it. So, what are managers expecting of their employees?

Attitude
Past experience will get employees in the door, but they shouldn’t expect it to carry much weight beyond their hire date: Once they’ve started a new position, they’ve hit their reputation reboot button in a way. Employees should remember they qualified for the position, their references checked out and they were the best of a large pool of talent, but approach their job knowing they still have to prove themselves.

Commitment
Management will generally mark employees for advancement if they see them as team players, who are contributing to the business, and are eager to make even greater contributions. They have to work hard at learning the job they are in, before setting their sights higher. Employees must remember there are others willing to replace them, so in order to advance they must take initiative and make their commitment to the business clear.

Five Management Mistakes:

1. Don’t assume your staff understands the task at hand without fully explaining it. If you don’t properly describe what’s expected of them, you could find yourself wasting time and money when work has to be redone.

2. Overlooking the need to counsel employees towards the right goals could lead them to lose focus. An employer should provide an objective view to their employees about job strengths, weaknesses and the opportunities available to them if they do well, and what to expect if they don’t.

3. Don’t forget to take the time to learn what motivates your staff.

4. Failure to provide reasons why rules and procedures require things to be done a certain way will do little to boost staff’s confidence in the way things are run.

5. Failure to take an interest in the employee’s development on the job could hurt their motivation to stay in the role. Developing strengths and taking an interest breed understanding, respect and loyalty.

Do you and your employees have a good understanding of these fundamentals?