{"id":5755,"date":"2014-11-20T09:05:41","date_gmt":"2014-11-20T17:05:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/recruitloop.wpengine.com\/?p=5755"},"modified":"2023-05-10T08:05:28","modified_gmt":"2023-05-10T15:05:28","slug":"5-signs-you-are-a-bad-manager","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.zippia.com\/employer\/5-signs-you-are-a-bad-manager\/","title":{"rendered":"5 Signs You Are A Bad Manager"},"content":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s one thing to set up a business. But what happens when you reach the point at which you\u2019re about to start hiring employees?<\/p>\n

Many people end up in the position of being a manager without thinking about developing a management style or understanding how to handle the employees that are working for them.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately the strategy of \u2018muddling along\u2019 can end up with an unstructured working environment and employees who are unproductive and dissatisfied. In this guest post, Nick Peacock, Managing Director of Ascendant Recruitment\u00a0looks at the five signs that you might need to consider changing the way you\u2019re handling your team.<\/p>\n

1.\u00a0You\u2019re not an option when employees have questions.<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Although you need to be capable of delegating on occasions, if your employees are too scared to come to you with questions then that\u2019s not a good sign.<\/p>\n

It may be that your employees find you unwilling to help or unable to offer solutions or perhaps you don\u2019t listen.<\/p>\n

Good communication is crucial to the success of any relationship. If you\u2019re sensing a distance between you and your employees then you need to deal with this promptly. Make contact with them and ask questions about how they are finding their work and whether there are any issues they need help with. Make sure they know that you don\u2019t expect them to be perfect and try to relate to them so that they feel comfortable coming to you with problems. If face to face isn\u2019t working then it might be worth using an email approach instead.<\/p>\n

2. Your employees don\u2019t know exactly what they\u2019re doing.<\/strong><\/h3>\n

If you have employees who are arriving every day with a minor list of tasks to do, little idea of why they\u2019re employed and who are spending a substantial part of the day trying to occupy themselves then they are not being managed properly.<\/p>\n

You need to make it clear what the structure of the role is for your employees and be sure that they know what is expected from them, both in terms of being an employee of the company in general and of their own particular role. Set up regular meetings and assessments \u2013 most employees will appreciate knowing how well they\u2019re doing, what they need to do to improve and what their prospects at the company are.<\/p>\n

Remember, you don\u2019t just need to wait for formal meetings to give feedback \u2013 it\u2019s a good idea to give feedback as you go along which will help your employees to learn from their mistakes and keep them motivated when they have done something well.<\/p>\n

3.\u00a0You have a ‘blame culture’ and you don\u2019t recognise achievement.\u00a0<\/strong><\/h3>\n

If you\u2019re very focused on punishing employees when they get something wrong \u2013 particularly in public \u2013 then this will result in people being afraid to make mistakes and simply doing the minimum to get by rather than actually getting the most out of their jobs. If you find that someone has made an error then speak to them privately and, as well as highlighting the mistake, give them constructive ways to fix the problem or avoid making the same mistake again.<\/p>\n

If you notice that there are employees who are doing particularly well or going beyond the call of duty then recognise the achievements, as this will serve to motivate the individual employee, as well as other employees who want to do similarly well.<\/p>\n

Positive reinforcement is far more powerful as a management tool than punishment and criticism.<\/p>\n

4.\u00a0You\u2019re never wrong \u2013 ever<\/em>.<\/strong><\/h3>\n

One person can\u2019t be right all the time and listening to your employees\u2019 ideas can give you perspective that you otherwise wouldn\u2019t see. If you don\u2019t then you\u2019re the boss who never listens to anything anyone else has to say and isn\u2019t big enough to admit to making a mistake. If this is the example you\u2019re setting then what do you expect from your employees other than to be similarly stubborn and obstructive?<\/p>\n

Instead of ignoring employees because they\u2019re junior \u2013 or simply not ‘you’ \u2013 learn to listen to them and consider what they have to say. A fully rounded manager will be able to encourage employees to speak up and contribute \u2013 you never know, their contribution could be the solution you\u2019ve been looking for.<\/p>\n

5.\u00a0There is no focus on the future.<\/strong><\/h3>\n

If your employees are just passing time to make money and go home as soon as the clock hits the end of the day then you\u2019re unlikely to have a very committed workforce. If you don\u2019t offer your employees something to aim for then you aren\u2019t motivating them in the way that you should. Draw your employees into the business vision and get them excited about what the future holds, not just for the company but for them too.<\/p>\n

Share plans with them, ask for their feedback, float ideas and make sure that they\u2019re fully involved with where the business is going over the next five years. The more invested they are the more likely they will go above and beyond the call of duty to achieve organisation-wide success. If you\u2019re reading the above and feel like one or more of these applies to you then it\u2019s not the end of the world.\u00a0If you\u2019re willing to do so, it\u2019s quite simple to reverse the effects of bad management.<\/p>\n

Good employees can really turn a business around but you need to give them the vision and structure to succeed. Remember that your staff are your customers. They represent your business \u2013 they are your business \u2013 so the more they thrive, the more successful the business will be.<\/p>\n

Nick Peacock is the Managing Director of Ascendant Recruitment\u00a0an organisation delivering talent in\u00a0Milton Keynes and Northamptonshire.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Whether you\u2019re starting out as a manager of a small business or you\u2019ve been a manager for some time, you may have slipped into some bad management habits.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":8911,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[30],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\n5 Signs You Are A Bad Manager<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Whether you\u2019re starting out as a manager of a small business or you\u2019ve been a manager for some time, you may have slipped into some bad management habits.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.zippia.com\/employer\/5-signs-you-are-a-bad-manager\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"5 Signs You 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