Every company has employees quit from time to time. It could be something as simple as the employee moving with a spouse, but sometimes it’s a result of poor management.
Marcel Schwantes, principal and founder of Leadership from the Core, lists these eight avoidable managing mistakes in a Sept. 21 article on Inc.com:
- Not recognizing their employees’ unique strengths. Research shows employee turnover is less likely when managers adjust jobs according to the strengths of their team, he writes.
- Poor communication with the team. According to research by Gallup, employees whose managers hold regular meetings with them are three times more engaged than those who do not have meetings with their managers.
- Not sharing information. It’s hard for employees to trust managers who withhold information as an act of control.
- Micromanaging. No one likes a micromanager. To avoid becoming one, focus on training during the employees’ first six to nine months. Then, give feedback and set expectations while listening to them and their needs, Schwantes says. Finally, give them opportunities to express their input and ideas, and allow them to make decisions on their own.
- Failure to listen. When a manager doesn’t listen, it shows employees a lack of concern, value and respect.
- Not making themselves available. One way to reverse this is an open-door policy, which allows employees to come by a manager’s office any time and share their thoughts.
- They lead with their egos. “Managers who think they have the best ideas and answers and use them to wield power or control suck the life out of their teams,” Schwantes writes. “On the flip side, people naturally gravitate toward bosses who display humility—who don’t have issues about being wrong and admitting it to their team.”
- They simply don’t give a rip about their people. These managers see people as expendable cogs in a wheel rather than colleagues who deserve to be treated as business partners, Schwantes says. It’s possibly the most crucial mistake of all.
