There are lots of different ways to be an effective leader, but there are countless mistakes that you can make along the way. Here are some leadership mistakes that you should avoid at all costs.
- Thinking you “know it all”
One of the surefire ways to make your team resent you is to think that you know it all. If your team resents you, they won’t work as hard for you and they likely won’t stay at their jobs for as long. Maintaining a high employee turnover rate is costly. Hiring and training new employees who don’t stay is expensive and time-consuming.
Furthermore, when you think you know it all, you don’t feel like you need help from others. If you don’t accept input from others, you’ll miss out on the power of collaboration. You want to harness the power of collaboration if you want your business to grow and reach new heights.
- Not admitting when you make mistakes
Admitting your mistakes goes along with admitting that you don’t know everything. You will inevitably make mistakes at work. After you make a mistake, you have the option of owning up to it or attempting to cover it up.
If you try to hide your mistakes from others, you again risk resentment and high turnover. You also will be creating a culture where people are afraid to admit their failures. You’re much better off admitting when you make a mistake. Your humility will show your team that you are authentic and that you don’t expect unrealistic perfection. Instead, you want everyone to do their best and admit when they do something wrong.
- Avoiding conflict
Every workplace has some conflict. If you choose, as the leader of your organization, to sweep conflict under the rug, it’s likely to fester and become problematic in the future. If you choose to deal with conflict, however, you’ll get the opposite results.
Conflict needs to be resolved and in a timely manner. Don’t be afraid of conflict. Instead, be afraid of what will happen if conflicts aren’t addressed.
- Not delegating
As your business grows, it becomes increasingly important to delegate effectively. If you don’t delegate work, you’ll soon find yourself swamped and not completing your most important tasks.
As your organization’s leader, there is some work that only you can do. That is the work that should become your focus. Everything else should be assigned to others. If you feel like you’re the only one who can do the work well, then you need to invest in some training until you feel more comfortable delegating regularly.
This article originally appeared on andresmanuelolivaresmiranda.com.