Effective Management Principles and Leadership Skills

Seven Habits of a Highly Ineffective Manager

The success of an organisation largely depends on the individual who manages the tasks at hand. He is referred to as the manager. A manager has several persons who work with and reports to him. The habits and dispositions of the manager goes a long way in determining the success of the organisation he manages. Every ineffective manager possesses at least one of the following habits listed below;

1. Continuously Breaking Your Word

The habit of not living up to your word erodes the level of confidence your employees have in you as a manager, especially when you make no effort at all. In the long run, this reduces the quality of work performed by your subordinates.

Take action today, do not make promises to your employees that you cannot keep. Respect the limits of your abilities and act within them.

2. Reprimanding employees in public

It is expected of a manager to reprimand or chastise his employees, but doing it in presence of other employees is unhealthy for the work environment. Some use this as a technique to make it look like they are fully in charge, especially when they know they aren’t, this results in the employee having hard feelings towards the manager.

As a manager, learn to resolve disputes with employees in the privacy of your office. This reflects your interest in the feelings of employees and you will be respected for it.

3. Invading Employee’s Privacy

A manager should get to know his employees well, but the boundaries should be respected. Ineffective managers over do this and end up invading the personal privacy of subordinates. As a result, subordinates might be uncomfortable with this and become defensive, withholding all that can be withheld from managers.

As a manager, respect the privacy of your employees. You may want to know some facts about them but you must know when you have reached your limits. Respect this limit and you will be respected in return.

4. No Positive Feed back

It is wrong for a manager to assume that their best employees know they are doing a great job, hence need no commendation. This makes you ineffective. He assumes that his employees expect him to come fix any problem, hence his absence implies all is well. This is risky because the employee may feel that his efforts are not recognized or appreciated.

A simple sentence like, “…you did great on this one, please keep it up…” will boost the confidence of your employee. Do not underestimate the potency of commending a job well done.

5. Knowing it all at all times

An ineffective manager assumes he knows it all and he can do all by himself. If this is true, why does he hire the services of others? By doing this, he alienates the employee from his job, making employees seek his approval before performing the slightest task. This makes the employees feel they do not own their tasks. This decreases creativity and productivity. Employees may end up lacking initiative, leaving everything to the manager.

Assign tasks and allow employees perform what they were hired to do. Create a relaxed atmosphere by seeking their opinions especially in areas where they are more knowledgeable. Ask to know if they feel micromanaged. This will be of long term benefits to you.

6. Speaking Before listening

Ineffective managers do not listen to what employees have to say. As far as they are concerned, they have deadlines and must employ all measures to beat them, hence they do all the talking and expect employees to listen. This attitude will not avail you the manager the opportunity of knowing what the problem is at lower levels. Productivity will be static thereby frustrating the employees.

Breaking this habit requires your conscious effort. Create an interactive forum where you as a manager meet with employees and hear what they have to say. Hear them out completely, let them do the talking while you do the listening, make some notes, in the following weeks, take action based on what was said. You will observe an increase in the levels of productivity.

7. Being afraid of discipline

Disciplining an erring employee is perhaps the most difficult task for a manager. He allows unproductive staffs continue with unruly behaviour. This results in the employee seizing every opportunity to abscond from duty. This creates a negative atmosphere at work because the ineffectiveness of the manager will annoy the entire team.

Against all odds, disciplinary actions must be taken against erring employees. Organize a meeting between you and the erring employee, finding out every detail regarding his or her behavior and act accordingly. Consult higher authorities if necessary.

An ineffective manager is of no use to his organisation. Take action NOW and get rid of all traits of ineffectiveness. This certainly pays off in the long run.