If there is one thing that poor leaders share in common, it will be their unawareness that they are bad people managers. Also, many of them think they are doing pretty well as leaders. And to make things worse, when they are made aware of their ineffectiveness as managers, they are often reluctant to admit it.
It is indeed very easy to play the blame-game, because many of us are not willing to even take a look at their own actions and shortcomings. What these people don’t realize is that knowing and admitting their mistakes is a huge step towards becoming a great leader.
If you want to be the best manager that you can be, it is important that you be a little hard on yourself. You need to do some self-evaluation, and then take the necessary action to improve on things that seem to be causing your own downfall.
Below are some signs that you might be a bad leader:
1. Your Team Is Not Performing Well
As a leader, your team’s performance is what you should look at first for you to gauge your effectiveness. While there may be several other things that can affect your people’s performance, it will all boil down to how your leadership is dealing with all those issues. Remember that poor team performance is often caused by poor management.
2. You Don’t Have a Good Relationship with Your People
A great leader is someone who opens their door to their employees. This means that you should be willing to listen to them, and act on whatever issues they are trying to raise. If you keep ignoring their concerns, there is no reason you should expect good performance from them.
3. You Never Ask for Feedback
Lousy leaders are likely to blame others when things are doing well. Such leaders don’t have the guts to ask for feedback, and they never want to be held accountable for anything. To become a good leader, you have to give value to what your workers think about you and your leadership. By doing this, you’re giving yourself a chance to know how else you can improve to become a better manager.
4. Your Team Is Not Inspired and Motivated
Believe it or not, how you interact with your staff has a huge effect on how they feel about their individual work. If you don’t communicate with them as often as you should, they will be unmotivated to work. And when there is no motivation, there is no employee engagement, which then results in poor employee performance.
Being a manager or a leader is no joke. This position gives you so much power, but it also comes with so many responsibilities. That’s why you can’t just sit there, give orders and wait for results. Keep in mind that the only way your effectiveness could be measured is through the performance of your team. If you need help in becoming a good manager, an executive coaching program could definitely be what you need to develop the skills of a great leader.