Management Mistakes to Avoid if You Want to Remain Credible
18 January 2014
Read by 2194 persons
There are many ways for a manager to lose credibility with their team. It is in critical or stressful situations that one can measure whether a manager has the appropriate attitudes inherent to their function. Reacting in anger, shouting, counter-attacking or, conversely, apologizing, constantly justifying oneself and remaining passive are reactions and behaviors unworthy of a good leader.
Management is a learned skill, not something to be improvised, and it is wrong to believe that because one has a strong personality, one will know how to manage people and earn their respect. To be followed and respected by your teams, you must be able to take a step back and gain perspective on the situations and people you work with and especially to lead by example.
Here are the most common mistakes you should absolutely avoid if you want to remain credible with your teams and maintain your authority.
Making people believe you're the only competent one
There is nothing more irritating for an employee than to hear their boss constantly grumbling that without them, everything would fall apart in the company.
Not only is this extremely demotivating for teams, but also, stop believing you are infallible because, unless you are a machine, this is far from the case, and when you make a mistake, you will only be further discredited in the eyes of your teams.
Talking and listening to yourself talk
The lack of active listening from the manager is one of the worst things for teams to experience. A manager who is always right, who interrupts and who is unable to listen attentively loses all credibility with their teams.
On the contrary, they will end up annoying their colleagues who will put on a good face in front of them but will denigrate their words as soon as they turn their back.
Hearing you shout from morning till night
Some managers are always irritable and always find a reason to shout at someone or something throughout the day. Besides stressing their teams and unnecessarily raising the pressure, they create a bad atmosphere and drain the energy of their colleagues.
The strangest thing is that some managers use this behavior thinking it's a way to assert their authority by being feared by their teams. Not only are they not feared, but on the contrary, they lose even more credibility by becoming the laughingstock of the teams who, behind their backs, make fun of their repeated shouting and tantrums, which ultimately look more like hysteria than authority.
Not knowing how to manage your emotions
In the face of attacks and dissatisfaction from an employee, the manager must be able to remain calm and quickly set limits to the discussion. Shouting and protests should not be tolerated on either side, and it is the manager's role to manage their own emotions and quickly frame the conversation before it escalates.
Allowing employees to vent their frustrations, especially in front of the team, will definitively kill the credibility of the manager who failed to manage the situation or, worse, only fueled it by losing their temper in turn.
Remaining passive
Conversely, a withdrawn, passive manager, unable to assert themselves in a given situation, loses just as much credibility with their teams. Teams need to be "driven" and feel supported, and they will not ultimately respect a manager without personality who, on the contrary, shows anxiety and fear in imposing their decisions.
A manager who is unable to resolve thorny issues, as well as simple problems, who delays operations as much as possible, who gives up at the slightest decision and avoids conflict, will not be taken seriously by their teams because they will represent a considerable obstacle to their success.
To all managers, if you are not credible, people will not trust you; if they do not trust you, you will not be able to convince them; and if you cannot convince them, you will not be able to innovate and lead.
Of course, universal credibility does not exist. Even within the same company, credibility will have several definitions, and certain actions and decisions will not have the same impact on all employees. However, there are universal behaviors that are unmistakable: not saying hello, getting angry, often being in a bad mood, severely lacking empathy, placing more importance on results than on interpersonal relationships, discriminating, not knowing how to take the right measures at the right time... are among the most significant behaviors that, over time, considerably erode the credibility of managers with their teams.
Paola Tumbarello
Directrice ExeKutive.biz
Management is a learned skill, not something to be improvised, and it is wrong to believe that because one has a strong personality, one will know how to manage people and earn their respect. To be followed and respected by your teams, you must be able to take a step back and gain perspective on the situations and people you work with and especially to lead by example.
Here are the most common mistakes you should absolutely avoid if you want to remain credible with your teams and maintain your authority.
Making people believe you're the only competent one
There is nothing more irritating for an employee than to hear their boss constantly grumbling that without them, everything would fall apart in the company.
Not only is this extremely demotivating for teams, but also, stop believing you are infallible because, unless you are a machine, this is far from the case, and when you make a mistake, you will only be further discredited in the eyes of your teams.
Talking and listening to yourself talk
The lack of active listening from the manager is one of the worst things for teams to experience. A manager who is always right, who interrupts and who is unable to listen attentively loses all credibility with their teams.
On the contrary, they will end up annoying their colleagues who will put on a good face in front of them but will denigrate their words as soon as they turn their back.
Hearing you shout from morning till night
Some managers are always irritable and always find a reason to shout at someone or something throughout the day. Besides stressing their teams and unnecessarily raising the pressure, they create a bad atmosphere and drain the energy of their colleagues.
The strangest thing is that some managers use this behavior thinking it's a way to assert their authority by being feared by their teams. Not only are they not feared, but on the contrary, they lose even more credibility by becoming the laughingstock of the teams who, behind their backs, make fun of their repeated shouting and tantrums, which ultimately look more like hysteria than authority.
Not knowing how to manage your emotions
In the face of attacks and dissatisfaction from an employee, the manager must be able to remain calm and quickly set limits to the discussion. Shouting and protests should not be tolerated on either side, and it is the manager's role to manage their own emotions and quickly frame the conversation before it escalates.
Allowing employees to vent their frustrations, especially in front of the team, will definitively kill the credibility of the manager who failed to manage the situation or, worse, only fueled it by losing their temper in turn.
Remaining passive
Conversely, a withdrawn, passive manager, unable to assert themselves in a given situation, loses just as much credibility with their teams. Teams need to be "driven" and feel supported, and they will not ultimately respect a manager without personality who, on the contrary, shows anxiety and fear in imposing their decisions.
A manager who is unable to resolve thorny issues, as well as simple problems, who delays operations as much as possible, who gives up at the slightest decision and avoids conflict, will not be taken seriously by their teams because they will represent a considerable obstacle to their success.
To all managers, if you are not credible, people will not trust you; if they do not trust you, you will not be able to convince them; and if you cannot convince them, you will not be able to innovate and lead.
Of course, universal credibility does not exist. Even within the same company, credibility will have several definitions, and certain actions and decisions will not have the same impact on all employees. However, there are universal behaviors that are unmistakable: not saying hello, getting angry, often being in a bad mood, severely lacking empathy, placing more importance on results than on interpersonal relationships, discriminating, not knowing how to take the right measures at the right time... are among the most significant behaviors that, over time, considerably erode the credibility of managers with their teams.
Paola Tumbarello
Directrice ExeKutive.biz
