There are many aspects that can make a management team perform successful or poorly. Many business teams lack good performance due to the actions or words of their management. These actions or words could just be a bad habit that translates to the workplace and inhibits many employees from doing their work. Some of these habits may include:
#1) Disorganization
This is one of the main traits of an incompetent manager because there is a very fine line between a little scattered and being consistently erratic. When management are constantly missing details due to disorganization is where the problems begin. Management is supposed to be on top of everything, so if the details are being missed by the group that oversees the details, you need to address it. A manager needs to be able to keep track of their own affairs before being given a team of employees. A management team that can’t even remember their wallet doesn’t instill the most confidence in their team either. The occasional hiccup is tolerable because obviously no one is perfect, but it can’t hurt to be close.
#2) Conflict Avoidance
Ignoring key areas in the business that need confrontation will only leave your business in the same spot and not growth which is what a company wants. Sometimes management needs to get themselves in uncomfortable positions in order to get things done and growing. This is also a sign of a weak manager because they are afraid to step up to someone and get problems resolved. Great management squash the underlying cause to avoid future problems and resolve everything that could make people upset. A great management team also teaches their employees to navigate and resolve disagreements respectfully. Ignoring the issue will only further procrastinate the problem until you reach a boiling point and everything goes wrong.
#3) Micromanagement
Micromanagers try and collect every little detail from their employees to perfect and dedicate every part of the process. They demand constant updates that will further the delay of work and just giving them more to do. This ruins team’s creativity and productivity, and while the manager thinks they are doing their job, but they are really making employees struggle to find joy or control over their work. The need to oversee comes off as a lack of trust especially when you have to get all of your ideas signed off. Anxiety about being able to produce results normally leads insecure or inexperienced managers to keep such a keen eye on everything.
#4) Unavailability
A manager should be available at pretty much all day during a work day and sometimes after or before it’s acceptable. There are times when they aren’t available and that’s okay, but if a manager is consistently not able to be reached then you have a problem. Leaders who aren’t available are not aware of what is happening in their departments. This could lead to staff slacking as well as not being able to produce results for the company. If a manager is not present throughout the day, employees feel unsupported and unimportant. This could lead staff to cutting off communication with management entirely. Being able to reach your leader should be an easy thing, but if they don’t reply it creates frustration and worry.
#5) Poor Listening Habits
There is usually a lot going through a manager’s mind on a day to day basis, and they talk to many people throughout their day so listening should be a skill that all good management have. Bad listeners tend to forget the details and could turn into a pattern. Problems arise for your employees when a manager is there and talks with an employee, then a day later has to re-ask everything that happened the day before. The employee will feel unheard and undervalued as a team member, which could lead to a lack in performance. Half-listening could also lead your team to mistakes and misunderstandings that could have been avoidable.
#6) Blame
Accountability and blame are two different things, while accountability is focused on the future, blame revolves around labels and deals with the past. A bad management team or manager will hold their team to high expectations, and when a mishap occurs they will go right into accusations that will only tear a team down. On the other hand good managers will only assign fault in service of fixing an error, which won’t make a judgement on employee’s capabilities or character. Bad management will continue to rip on the same mistake you could have made two weeks ago. This instinct to point fingers first and demoralize rather than assess the situation correctly.
#7) Favoritism
A great way for a manager to make their employees destructive, is to let an employee who has a good relationship with the manager so they get to slack a bit. Nothing enrages people more than to not be treated as equals and when managers play favorites it’s easy for non-favored employees to be quite butt-hurt. Personal feeling really deserves no place in the office because everyone there is on your team and considered somewhat of a friend. Whether the boss likes a group of people or just one more than the others, there is no incentive to work hard or at all if all of the reward will directly already be going to the favored group.
#8) Motivate by Fear
Being a vocal leader is very constructive for a work team, but when that vocal turns to either a threat or humiliation, neither belong in the office. A leader can be loud and disagree with their team from time to time, but if the disagreement turns to hate towards someone then that destroys what you are trying to accomplish as a team. This could lead to some employees hiding problems so they aren’t in fear of retribution. Bad managers would not apologize genuinely even when they know they stepped over the line, but a great manager would apologize like they truly didn’t mean what they said.
#9) Unprofessional Behavior
Business, generally would be considered a formal setting in most places, and professionalism is a key to keep your office and co-workers in a formal order. Management that disregards behavior standards, such as dress code, disrespecting co-workers, tending to personal matters on the clock, and even as bad as foul language or hitting on co-workers. Hitting on co-workers as a higher leveled management already looks bad, because it could be taken as an imbalance of power and is just not what managers should do. Often companies will have policies against managers dating subordinates, which protects the employees and the company. Other behavior problems could include insults, racial slurs, and inappropriate actions against employees are all signs of inappropriate management. These behaviors can lead to employees doing the same behaviors and create a bunch of stress and conflicts.
#10) No Team-Building
Not having your employees working as a team is one of the worst ways to manage is one of the worst ways to manage a team of people. There are many things you can do as a manager to help your team work better together. Bad management don’t do anything to build a better team, this won’t allow your team to progress and improve on productivity. This hurts your business more than you could think, because if your team isn’t working like an actual team then what is the point of a team in the first place. Bad managers will treat and address employees as individuals, they just ignore the aspect of team-working entirely. Of course any team-member could schedule a team building activity, but management should take initiative and help them by making a team building activity available.
The way that you should deal with a majority of the bad management habits would be to contact HR to discuss possible issues that you may have. Having a discussion with HR and management on how they can change to better themselves and the business would be productive for everyone. Talk with your team and ask if they are seeing the same habits from your management and collectively as a team could bring up the bad habit in a meeting or somewhere with others. Certain situations require certain actions to help resolve them, and the first place you should go to fix the problem would be Human Relations.