Getting Off of The Charted Course

By Gregg Gregory

The challenges facing leaders today is never ending and we get caught up in the stuff necessary to accomplish the immediate task at hand and we sometimes lose sight of the ultimate goal or mission. It is here that mistakes happen and not just to the new leader. Even a well-seasoned leader can fall into any one of these traps. Here are seven of the most common pitfalls that will blow any leader off course:

• Making All of the Decisions - Too many leaders think that they have to make all of the decisions for the team. While some decisions do need to be made by the leader many decisions can be brought to the team. When this occurs the team feels empowered and may even have a better decision as a consensus that a single person may have come up with singularly.

• Not Delegating - Get over it - and just delegate a task. You will never be able to accomplish everything on your own anyway so why not delegate? Yeah I know they cannot do the job the way you would and it has to be done a certain way. If you will take the time to teach and coach them as time passes they will be able to do it your way - assuming your way is the most effective.

• Delegating Responsibility Without Delegating Authority - Any empowerment you may have achieved in delegating the task has just been wasted away to near nothing by not allowing the employee to implement what he/she has just completed. You have shown that there is a significant lack of trust on your part; not to mention insecurity as well.

• Failing to Support Your Employees - This is one of the fastest ways to ruin a team. When a team makes a mistake remember it is what went wrong and not who screwed up. When the team experiences a success they are the ones who deserve the credit. In times of pressure other departments may say things they may not otherwise say and you as the leader need to back up your team and show support. Doing this is one of the fastest ways to build respect from even the toughest team members around.

• Failing to Take Risks and Change Things - Show me someone who has not failed and I will show you someone who has not taken risks. Some of the greatest things in the world have happened because someone took a risk. If you make a change in the process and it does not work you can always change it back - be willing to push the envelope a little.

• Not Recognizing Team and Individual Success - According to many surveys employees feel that they are not being recognized for their jobs. Now this does not mean that you have to praise someone for the most trivial of tasks - it does mean that when they achieve a success you need to recognize the person. And when the team meets their goals for the month be sure to recognize the entire team. Reread number four above.

• Not Dealing with a Problem Early Enough - Once again too many leaders simply hope a problem will just go away - guess what - it doesn't and if you do not take appropriate action early enough you have just rewarded negative behavior and that is in essence giving permission for the behavior to continue.

Think back on the last twelve months and have you, or any of your colleagues fallen prey to any of these mistakes? If yes what were the consequences? What could have been done to prevent these mistakes and what will you do differently in the future?

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