Want to be your own boss? Are you prepared to manage employees effectively?
By Catherine Park
Today, entrepreneurship is one of the most challenging professions in the world. With the stiff competition in the global market, entrepreneurs need to be smart in everything they do to gain that competitive advantage in the market. For young and aspiring entrepreneurs to succeed having managerial skills is core.
Leadership contributes to both the success and failure of a business. Practicing good leadership is crucial for the business to achieve Return on Investment (ROI) within the shortest time. As a leader of your own business, you should have the required knowledge and skills to coordinate your resources and increase your production efficiency.
Being consistent in the market can help you maintain a wider customer base. Setting the right managerial tone in your organization is a core in achieving constant productivity and ensuring that you work towards your goals. The kind of result you get as an entrepreneur will depend on your managerial capabilities.
This article is meant to give you some of the tips we had to learn within Caffeinated, on how to be a good leader for your organization and achieve your desired goals in the shortest time possible. Strive to avoid the following habits is you are looking forward to being a good leader for your organization.
- Micromanaging
- Adopting negative reinforcements
- Ignoring your employees
- Postponing or failing to make decisions on time
- Poor conflict resolution
- Inflexibility
- Egocentrism
1. Micromanaging
Although some people may prefer this type of management, it may be unproductive and catastrophic to a startup business as Reviewlatest found to their cost early in their startup cycle.
Micromanagement is a habit that sets in before you even know. It starts when you force your employees to adopt a particular methodology and framework in their jobs. In the end, every single aspect of the employee’s jobs is interrupted and productivity lowered.
Ideally, micromanagement is unhealthy for your business because it undermines the abilities of the employees. How does it feel to be caged and given restrictions on how far you can exploit your limits?
Micromanagement only permits your employees to exercise a given proportion of their talents. This is not good for the business. Since you hired your employees to do the job assigned to them, it is important that you set them free and only guide them when it is necessary.
Putting too many restrictions only reduces their capacity and ability to exploit their talents and help improve the productivity rate in your organization. Do not force your employees to do things your way, trust them to deliver. Also, this practice only wastes your time and stops you from engaging in other productive managerial activities in the organization.
2. Adopting negative reinforcements
Being negative is not a good quality of a manager. We develop this character from the way we socialize with other people. Sometimes issuing negative feedback to your employees may not yield the desired outcomes in your organization. At times negativity may be productive when used as a motivational and reinforcement tool.
To improve the productivity of your employees, and stop them from making mistakes often, it is not healthy to major on their downfalls. Guide your employees on coming up with the immediate solutions to their mistakes to stop them from making such errors in the future.
Using harsh language or making negative statements makes your employees feel unappreciated and awful for their actions. Highlighting the goods things that your employees have done only helps to boost their morale and improves their confidence
3. Ignoring your employees
Adopting a single approach to address a group is not a good practice in management. A group of individuals comprises of individuals with different characters and abilities. By applying, one approach to handle a group of employees stops you from highlighting the different abilities that your employees may have. Treat your employs at an individual level.
You can come up with a clear set of rules, standards, and quality policy that all your employees must stick to in the organization. However, to know more about their abilities and weakness, you may consider handling all their issues in a selective way, rather than addressing them as a group.
4. Postponing or failing to make decisions on time
As the saying goes, procrastination is a thief of time. There are decisions that as a manager you must make as soon as possible to ensure your organization activities stay on track. As a leader, there are those decisions that the whole organizations rely on you to make. Make sure you weigh the pros and cons of your decisions and consider their impacts on your employee’s welfare.
Sometimes ignoring or postponing the decisions, you intend to make may be productive, though in rare cases. For instance, if one of your employees is not sticking to their job description or is under-performing, waiting to see their progress may be worth it. At times, when you end up ignoring mistakes made by your employees you may be sending signals of incompetence to your organization staff.
5. Poor conflict resolution
Conflicts may arise in the organization. Being there to bring order is important. As a leader aspiring to achieve success in your organization, you must always practice effective conflict resolution. Acknowledge the progress the company is making and do not forget to address the areas you need your employees to consider. Handling the problems facing the organization only leaves them unaddressed and increases their chance of reoccurrence.
6. Inflexibility
Being open to new ideas improves your managerial skills. It may also open opportunities for future business expansion. Be willing to listen to the suggestions and opinions from your juniors or employees and strive to formulate your rules and guidelines based on opinions gathered. Note that all suggestions made by the employs may not necessarily translate to policies. Some are worth ignoring, but some must be given due attention.
Being an ignorant manager makes you seem arrogant, unreasonable, distant, and even unapproachable. That makes your employees feel resentful, unmotivated, and unappreciated. Always listen to your employees’ views, involve them in decision making (where necessary), and make them feel an important part of your business. This way, they will feel motivated and ready to work with your organization on long term basis.
7. Display your power publicly
Leadership comes with power, and you must be keen to use this opportunity well. You should never display your recklessly in public or publicly. Doing so simply breeds resentment especially among your workers. Such issues can deconstruct your team environment you probably worked so hard to put in place.
For instance, publicly belittling, laying off, or hooting orders to someone can make you appear petty and in worst cases, irresponsible. Thus, you should always remain calm at all times, show respect to your workers by speaking to them politely or privately, and only tap into your power when necessary.
Conclusion
As a young entrepreneur aspiring to climb the ladder of success, you must be willing to apply some of the tips given in this article. Avoiding these toxic habits can help your organization improve its productivity. Notably, being a good leader is all about commitment. Commit yourself to developing a good partnership with your employees and witness the desired change you want.
Catherine Park is a connector with Caffeinated who help businesses find their audience online. She loves working in the ever-changing world of digital and is fascinated by the role content plays in today’s marketing.
Management stock photo by fizkes/Shutterstock
