Exceptional Leaders Never Do These 20 Things
Your business is a reflection of yourself--it's time to take
self-development seriously.
The best leaders have a unique opportunity to create an environment that reflects
their own values while maximizing individual strengths.
Unfortunately,
many individuals in leadership
positions lack the self-awareness necessary to
become exceptional at inspiring others.
If you want to
take the next step in your leadership development, avoid these 20 mistakes:
1. Speaking like a politician instead of a
person.
Between Trump, Clinton, and congress, we have
enough masquerades to last until 2020.
What employees crave is someone who's
authentic, genuine, and not afraid to answer questions with honesty and
transparency.
2. Putting people on the spot in front of
others to make them feel embarrassed.
Calling someone out in front of their peers
leads to isolation and shame, quickly creating a dynamic of secretes instead of
open communication.
3. Using titles or experience to justify your
behaviors instead of logic.
The best way to convey your values and
philosophy to your company is explaining your thought processes behind
important decisions.
Hiding behind your resume is an appeal to
authority that builds resentment and divides team members.
4. Seeking arguments with coworkers you know
you'll win.
We get it--you know more than the rest of us,
there's no need to go the extra mile--it only builds resentment.
5. Allowing negativity in your personal life
to infiltrate the workplace.
When you have a bad weekend and then bring
that negative energy into the workplace it decreases productivity and makes
everyone feel on edge.
6. Blaming others instead of taking ownership
and responsibility.
The best leaders hold themselves accountable
because it models the ability to own up to your mistakes and shows that no one
is except from personal and collective responsibility.
7. Telling people to do something that you
haven't done.
When you haven't experienced something, it's
important that you value the opinions of people who have.
8. Displacing your frustration onto employees
rather than its source.
Having control over the workplace but not
your personal life leads to the re-creation of family-like chaos in a corporate
environment, which is bad for business and emotional wellbeing.
9. Enforcing policies without explaining the
reason for their implementation.
Stop wasting opportunities to get people on
the same page. No one wants to do something that feels arbitrary and without
reason.
10. Reducing employee satisfaction to a
dollar value instead of prioritizing workplace cohesion.
Give back to your employees instead of
pinching them for every dollar and cent. When you make employees feel valued
and aligned with your core values, they want to work for you instead of the
competition.
11. Not being approachable.
Whether it's the cleaning staff or the
investors, leaders need to be open and actively seeking out engagement with
others.
12. Not taking action to solve and resolve
employee complaints.
When you ask for feedback and then do nothing
about it, you're communicating that people's opinions don't matter.
Even something as simple as showing the top
complaints and your plan to address it is sometimes enough validation to buy
time and respect.
13. Excessively emphasizing the company's
bright future to minimize current suffering.
Stop dangling the carrot and start
acknowledging what's happening right now.
14. Not truly listening to their employees.
Great leaders listen and value the opinions
of their employees.
15. Shaming workers for lacking your same
level of dedication to work.
Expecting other people to care as much about
their work as you do is setting yourself up for frustration.
16. Being out of touch with the experiences
of entry level workers.
When you're driving a car, you need to know
what's happening on the ground so you can avoid potholes.
17. Saying one thing and then doing another.
If you want your words to be valued, you need
to increase not decrease your integrity.
18. Failing to acknowledge and reward
above-and-beyond performance.
When you go above and beyond acknowledging
and appreciating good performance, it becomes a great recruiting tool and
motivates current employees to work harder.
19. Keeping underperforming friends and
family in the business.
Establish a meritocracy. If your friends and
family don't keep up, you can't reward them without undermining everyone else.
20. Being rude and inconsiderate in digital
communications.
Be thoughtful with your words--they set the
precedent for everyone else.
Exceptional
leaders do what they say, practice what they preach, and lead by example. They immerse themselves in self development
practices because they know that they must embody the values they wish to
instill in others.
They behave according to their values, treat
all people with warmth and respect, encourage conversation, and they recognize
their own limitations.
If you want to
be the best leader you can become and have the most significant impact on your
company, then you need to work on refining yourself--because your business is a reflection of yourself.
BY MATTHEW
JONES
http://www.inc.com/matthew-jones/exceptional-leaders-never-do-these-20-things-but-always-do-this-instead.html
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