When you have a company or you are in a position to manage people, it is important you understand how they see or perceive you. If they see you as not a good manager or supervisor, it could affect productivity. You must come out as a professional who is committed to make the firm succeed by tapping the collective skills of all the team members. You must respect your team and have confidence that they can do the jobs you hired them; otherwise, you will find it hard to delegate.
These are five things to avoid
When you have graduates in a team, they have done many things right before you hired them or before working in your company. One mistake you will be making is to imagine that they do not know anything. In some cases, they know more than you. If you just give them a little freedom to fail or succeed, they will succeed. There is a huge difference between mentoring and micromanaging. They cannot always do it the way you do it, but they can get the results right. Yes, you like to write equations in Microsoft Office Excel, but they like to use buttons. Both do the same and that is why you must not micromanage.
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- Close-talks
When you talk to your team, be professional. Do not counsel them. Just make them understand you see them as professionals. Be a mentor and do not be deceived thinking you can manage their lives. Sure, you can manage the job. And that is why you must separate both. Most close talks do not work out. Even if you must do them, make it work related and avoid stepping into their lives, unless that actually affects their efficiencies.
- Befriending your staff
Have great moments with you team, but do not make them your friends. Make them relax and be in good terms but they must not be friends to you. There is a difference between respect and team work than being friends. Erosion of principles could happen if you want to become their friends and they may not like that after all.
- Obsession with managing up
When you focus on managing up, remember that you cannot neglect managing down. It turns out that both aspects are necessary to have a cohesive execution. You must learn to delegate.
- Favoritism
This is a killer. Do not favor anyone. Just treat all the same, but reward exceptional performance. The fact you identify talents and reward them does not mean you favor them. There is a genuine reason to push talented team member upward and that must be based on performance that is visible than any kind of subjective favoritism.
- You know all
This is where you fail. By neglecting to get insights from your team, you will surely fail over time. You do not know all and being open to listen will make your firm perform better over time. Managers that think they know all always end up losing insights that would have made things better. Be the manager, but be open to new perspectives.