16 Mistakes Turning You Into Everyone’s Least Favorite Boss

It’s not the easiest job managing a team or a company. No matter how much you try to stay on top of your work, you’re bound to run into problems sooner or later. While these challenges can usually be solved, the way you handle them and how you treat your employees shows what kind of boss you are. If you want to be a leader your team can look up to and rely on, here are some habits you should consider letting go of.

You Nitpick Their Work

Nobody wants to compromise performance and quality, so you’ll be tempted to monitor your employees’ performance and day-to-day tasks. However, constantly hovering over their shoulders, criticizing them without any reason, and trying to meddle in their projects will only make them fear and resent you.

You Play Favorites

We all have that one employee who puts in the most effort and deserves praise. But this doesn’t mean you begin to play favorites; letting someone handle tasks and projects because you personally find them likable or have close links to them creates an unfair environment for the other employees and can lead to resentment.

You Can’t Communicate

You might be frustrated because your employees don’t seem to understand the work or are creating trouble. But unless you clearly communicate this with them, they won’t be able to understand the work and thus won’t be able to perform effectively. Don’t leave your employees guessing; keep open communication with them.

You Hold Out Resources

While every employee is supposed to rely on their own tools and become independent, it doesn’t help to assist them occasionally. However, if you refuse to share resources because you want to push them to motivation or partly think they don’t deserve the resources, you’ll end up creating a hostile work environment.

You Don’t Trust Them

It takes a while for everyone to learn the ropes of a new responsibility. But if you still refuse to trust your employee’s work ethics and performance, you’re setting up the company for an unstable future. Employees who realize they’re not being trusted with even menial tasks will end up quitting, and you’ll lose out on valuable people.

You Have Unrealistic Expectations

Give your employees enough time to adjust to a new workload. If you expect them to achieve perfection, you’re only setting yourself up for disappointment. Setting unrealistic expectations keeps employees tense, preventing them from working efficiently. Ironically, it only disrupts their performance.

You Maintain A Strict Environment

Every workplace should have a good working environment. But if you’re keeping your employees on a rigid routine, asking them to log bathroom breaks, avoid casual conversation, and even ban activities like listening to personal music, you’re only going to create a hostile environment that nobody will want to work in.

You Don’t Praise Them

A little appreciation goes a long way; even small tokens of gratitude or praise shape an employee’s confidence and motivate them to continue working efficiently. But if you hold out on praise, don’t take the time to encourage their efforts, and generally avoid appreciating their work, they’ll begin to think their work isn’t satisfactory and lose confidence in their performance.

You Let Them Take The Fall

A good leader is one who takes control of a troubling situation, diffuses it, takes accountability for their team, and reprimands the team privately. But if you’re quick to throw your employees under the bus, refuse to step in, even if it’s for their defense, and let them take the fall for something that isn’t in their control, you’re being a terrible boss.

You Don’t Take Accountability

It’s not only about having your employees’ backs; being a good boss is also about knowing when to take responsibility for your actions. While it might not be the easiest thing to admit, bosses can mess up, too. If you refuse to take responsibility for your actions and apologize for your mistakes, your employees won’t respect you anymore.

You Have Poor Time Management

Are you constantly delaying tasks? Do you end up postponing events? Do you attend meetings just in the nick of time? If your poor time management affects your employees’ work hours, you’re actively interfering with their performance and disrupting their work day. It’s even worse if you let important things like annual reviews be delayed.

You Make Decisions Without Input

Although your word as the boss is the ultimate decider, not involving your team in the decision-making affects both morale and output. When you don’t take input from those who will be impacted by your decisions or those who must implement them, you miss out on valuable perspectives. More input leads to more ideas, which results in more effective decision-making. Not to mention, the team will also feel more involved.

You Ignore Their Concerns

If your employees share their concerns or ideas and you ignore them, it makes them feel like their opinions don’t matter. This can hurt their motivation and stop them from speaking up in the future. A good boss listens and shows they value what their team has to say. Taking their concerns seriously helps build trust and respect.

You Fail to Lead by Example

The way you act directly influences the environment and culture of your team. If you’re not doing the things you expect from your employees, they won’t take you seriously. This includes things like being punctual, working hard, and maintaining professionalism. When you lead by example and practice what you preach, your team will feel motivated to do the same.

You Avoid Giving Feedback

Avoiding giving feedback is a big red flag for corporate leadership. Skipping performance reviews fosters a toxic workplace culture that affects both your team and the organization. It hinders personal and organizational growth and signals to employees that their insights are unimportant. Over time, team members may stop sharing ideas altogether, leading to reduced innovation.

You Encourage Unhealthy Work-Life Balance

Occasionally, we all have to put in overtime at work. But if your employees stay late every night because you demand them to, they’ll exhaust themselves because of poor work-life balance. It’s not only them; if you’re unable to balance your personal and work life, you’ll end up taking your frustrations out on unsuspecting employees.

More For You

It’s tough to stay motivated when you feel like you’re under a microscope, particularly when your boss is monitoring every little detail. Here are some warning signs that you’re being micromanaged at work.

This article was first published on the RB ITALIA Blog.