{"id":3493,"date":"2019-02-28T10:23:02","date_gmt":"2019-02-28T18:23:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/knowyourteam.com\/blog\/?p=3493"},"modified":"2024-10-11T12:48:50","modified_gmt":"2024-10-11T19:48:50","slug":"the-9-leadership-mistakes-you-dont-know-youre-making-as-a-new-manager","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canopy.is\/blog\/2019\/02\/28\/the-9-leadership-mistakes-you-dont-know-youre-making-as-a-new-manager\/","title":{"rendered":"The 9 leadership mistakes you don’t know you’re making as a new manager"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Don’t accidentally become a bad boss by overlooking these often imperceptible leadership mistakes.<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
\"9<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019ve never met you, but I\u2019m going to make a guess about you: You\u2019re making leadership mistakes you don\u2019t even know about.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I don\u2019t mean to sound presumptuous (or crass!). I\u2019m in part reflecting on personal experience\u200a\u2014\u200aI\u2019ve made a boatload of leadership mistakes, myself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

More objectively, I\u2019m citing probability: Gallup\u2019s research<\/a> on millions of managers over the past 7 years revealed that companies choose the wrong manager 82% of the time. And if that\u2019s not disconcerting enough, they found only 1 in 10 managers possess what they describe \u201cthe natural talent to manage\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In short, the likelihood that you, as a new manager coming out of the gate, are inherently endowed with the perfect blend of traits, experience, and skills to be a great manager\u2026 Let\u2019s get real. It\u2019s unbelievably low.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Such is the \u201ccurse\u201d of a new manager. Leadership is not as intuitive as we\u2019re eager to believe. What we\u2019d like<\/em> to think works doesn\u2019t actually work. And the only way to find out things don\u2019t work is to mess them up pretty badly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or, is that the only way?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Based on the research we\u2019ve done over the past 10 years with 30,000+ people with Canopy<\/a>, and interviewing hundreds of CEOs, executives and managers, I\u2019ve pulled together the mistakes most leaders tend to overlook. These are the most dangerous kinds of leadership mistakes\u200a\u2014\u200athe mistakes that unintentionally hurt our team, without us ever knowing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My hope is to spare you some of the self-inflicted sufferings I and many other leaders have kicked themselves about, after-the-fact. So, without further ado, here are the 9 most common, imperceptible leadership mistakes to avoid:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mistake #1: You think building trust is about team-building.<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

When we want to build trust as a leader, we often resort to team-building activities: Company retreats, informal lunches, recognizing employees publicly for a job well done, etc. However, in our survey of almost 600 people, we found that team-building activities were in fact rated as the least effective way to build trust<\/a>. What was rated as most effective? Being vulnerable as a leader, sharing your intention, and following through on your commitment. In other words, trust isn\u2019t about building rapport\u200a\u2014\u200ait\u2019s about you making clear why you\u2019re doing something, and then acting on it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mistake #2: You think your team members generally know what\u2019s going on.<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

You\u2019re in Slack, you\u2019re on calls, you\u2019re in team meetings\u2026 You do a ton of communicating and sharing of info as a leader with your team. What\u2019s not to know? Well, a lot apparently. When we asked 3,197 people across 701 companies through Canopy<\/a>, \u201cAre there things you don\u2019t know about the company that you feel you should know? 55% of people said, \u201cYes, there are things I don\u2019t know about the company that I feel like I should know.\u201d Furthermore, in a separate survey we ran with 355 people in the fall of 2018, we found that 91% of employees said their manager could improve how they share information. Specifically, 42% of employees wanted their managers to communicate more regularly with them and 38% said they wish their managers shared more of their decisions and the reasons behind why they make them. While you<\/em> might feel you\u2019re communicating enough as a leader, your team feels otherwise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mistake #3: You believe being busy as a leader is good.<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

You\u2019re getting things done. You\u2019re making things happen. When you\u2019re busy as a leader, you can be tempted to believe you\u2019re doing a good job. However, in leadership, that\u2019s not the case. I interviewed<\/a> Michael Lopp, VP of Engineering of Slack, who underscored this for me: \u201cIf you\u2019re too busy doing the actual work, as a manager, that\u2019s a huge mistake.\u201d The best leaders help employees navigate what\u2019s fuzzy, provide structure around about what needs to happen, and reveal why the work matters. But you can\u2019t do that as a leader if your nose is in your email inbox all day, or you\u2019re out traveling to visit clients every week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mistake #4: You sort-of prepare for your one-on-one meetings (when you have the time).<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Did you prepare for the last one-on-one meeting you had with a direct report? Be honest \ud83d\ude42 In a recent survey we conducted of 1,182 managers and 838 employees, we found that only 24% of employees believed their manager was well prepared for their one-on-one. The other 76% percent were managers who were seen as only \u201csomewhat prepared\u201d, \u201cnot prepared\u201d or \u201cnot prepared at all.\u201d Ouch. When you show up to a one-on-one meeting without a clear agenda or set of questions, it shows. You waste everyone\u2019s time and squander a valuable opportunity to support your direct report. Here are some recommendations for how to prepare for a one-on-one meeting as a manager<\/a>. \u00a0(You may also want to check out our “How to Hold Effective 1:1 Meetings<\/a>“<\/strong> in Canopy<\/a>, which gives you hundreds of suggested questions and agenda templates for you to prepare for your 1-on-1s.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mistake #5: You try to solve the problem yourself because you\u2019re the domain expert.<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Someone comes to you with a problem. As a leader, you roll up your sleeves and dive in headfirst to resolve it. After all, you\u2019re the one with the most experience in this particular domain. It makes sense to do what you\u2019re good at\u2026 Right? Wrong. Peldi Guilizzoni, CEO of Balsamiq shared this counterintuitive insight<\/a>: When you focus doing always on what you\u2019re good at, the team never learns to get good at it themselves. \u201cInstead,\u201d shared Peldi, \u201cfocus on delegating training and making sure that everybody gets good at doing those things.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\nLooking for more detailed guidance on this topic?<\/strong>\nMake sure to check out our Training Program.\n<\/div>\n
\nLearn more<\/a>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Mistake #6: You think transparency all the time is good.<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

From making salaries public within the company to open-book management, the concept of transparency in the workplace is more popular than ever. Understandably (and rightfully) so. However, transparency can backfire if you don\u2019t hold two concepts in view: Transparency requires context, and transparency is on a spectrum. Des Traynor, co-founder of Intercom, dispelled critical wisdom on this topic, explaining<\/a>: \u201cThe key thing people forget in transparency is it\u2019s not about opening up the Google Drive and making sure that everyone can read everything\u200a\u2014\u200ait\u2019s about the transparency of context as well.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mistake #7: You think you communicate the vision in your team well.<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Vision<\/a> is crucial. But do you know how<\/em> crucial? According to our survey of 355 managers and employees, respondents said vision is #1 piece of information a manager should be sharing (45% of people said this). And yet, when we asked 2,932 people across 618 companies through Canopy, \u201cIf someone asked you to describe the vision of the company, would a clear answer immediately come to mind?\u201d almost a third of employees (29%) squarely said, \u201cNo.\u201d As a leader, we must thoughtfully reconsider how to help more folks answer \u201cYes\u201d to that crucial question.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mistake #8: You think you\u2019re giving enough feedback.<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The barrage of feedback seems endless. You\u2019re doing one-on-one meetings, employee surveys, annual performance reviews. Yet, despite this, in our data collected through Canopy, we found that 80% of employees want more feedback about their performance (1,468 employees were asked about this across 138 companies). And yes, these are folks who are already using Canopy as a tool to get feedback! What it illustrates is a strong desire from your team to receive even more<\/em> critiques, suggestions, and ideas\u200a\u2014\u200athe bad along with the good\u200a\u2014\u200aabout what they can be doing better. You might think you\u2019re giving enough of it, but you could be giving even more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\nLooking for more detailed guidance on one-on-one meetings?<\/strong>\nMake sure to check out our 1:1 module in Canopy.\n<\/div>\n
\nLearn more<\/a>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Mistake #9: You\u2019re nice.<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Don\u2019t be an asshole, by all means. But don\u2019t overcompensate by focusing solely on being nice. When we\u2019re preoccupied with seeming likable instead of fair, when we optimize for feel-good conversations instead of honest ones\u200a\u2014\u200awe damage<\/em> our teams. Hiten Shah, the founder of Kissmetrics, Crazy Egg and FYI, was emphatic about this point to me, describing how when you overly prioritize being nice, \u201cthere\u2019s a level of the toxic culture that develops that\u2019s hard to see, especially on a remote team<\/a>.\u201d Instead of seeking to be nice, we should seek to be honest, rigorous, and consistent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Was my guess not far off? Have you found yourself making one (or a few) of these leadership mistakes, unknowingly?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you tensed your mouth and nodded a \u201cYes\u201d, don\u2019t be discouraged. Leadership isn\u2019t about avoiding every mistake in the book\u200a\u2014\u200athat\u2019s impossible. Rather, the best leaders are unendingly curious to know what their mistakes could be and deeply rigorous about trying to spot them in advance the next time around.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is how you get better. It doesn\u2019t always feel pleasant, but that\u2019s the perilous process of gaining new knowledge: It\u2019s bumpy, it\u2019s uncomfortable, it\u2019s frustrating, and, at times, humiliating. Rarely do you learn how to ride a bike and not get a scuffed up knee or two along the way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Seeing your leadership mistakes for what they are\u200a\u2014\u200athese nine in particular\u200a\u2014\u200ais part of that learning. If you want to be a better leader, here is where you start.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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For a deeper dive, be sure to check out our \u201cFoundations of Leadership<\/a>\u201d module in Canopy. The first few lessons are free \u2013 as are hundreds of daily tips. Try\u00a0Canopy<\/a><\/em>\u00a0for free, yourself, today.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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