Our CEO, Barry Whelan, featured in this month’s edition of ShelfLife magazine talking about the mistakes managers make. See what he had to say below:
Securing great talent is harder than ever in today’s competitive market, so it is vital management don’t alienate staff by adopting the wrong attitude or techniques.
Here, Excel Recruitment’s Barry Whelan outlines 12 of the top mistakes to avoid:
When candidates come through Excel, looking for a new role, we zone in on their ‘reason for leaving’. We want to understand completely why the candidate wants to move job, so that we can find the right new job for them. One of the reasons that comes up consistently in the top five is frustration with a manager or poor management. Over this month and next, I will be outlining 30 of the top bad management mistakes that drive an employee out the door.
For all those managers out there interested in improving their ability to manage others, take heart in that you’re only human. I know I for one have made every single one of these management mistakes at some point or another in my career. Let’s start with my personal favourite!
1) Be inconsistent and unpredictable:
This manager likes to keep people on their toes by being totally inconsistent in terms of communication (both style and content), expectations, feedback and long-term vision for the organisation. All the employees’ nerves are shot from playing workplace Russian roulette!
2) Move the goalposts:
This manager changes their expectations every time you meet with them. They give out to employees for not meeting the new expectations they have just told them about and for instead wasting all their time trying to meet the expectations they set last month. They look for constant validation!
3) Involve themselves in every decision:
This manager does not let any decision be made without weighing in, no matter how small, and no matter how long it will be before they have time to review the matter. They are hands on…no problem is too small that needs their faultless problem solving!
4) Correct small mistakes to demonstrate how clever they are:
The classic insecure micro manager will review and approve emails or business correspondence, then change their mind over inane word choices. They will randomly ‘correct’ already correct grammar or spelling on documents given to you to sign in pen, ensuring that even once you understand it’s correct, it has to be re-printed!
5) Refuse to give any feedback:
The manager who won’t give any feedback, either positive or negative, ever, but will overreact completely when people fail to correctly understand what they want!
6) Make everyone run on their schedule:
They will be 20 minutes late to every meeting, leave early, and then get angry when a minor decision is made without having their input. They insist on being the final decision maker for every aspect of every project, but then don’t make decisions in a timely manner; instead waiting until the eleventh hour and making everyone scramble to get the work done.
7) Spend time on less important things so that they can ignore more important things:
The manager who insists on doing tasks someone else could do while unmade decisions pile up on their desk to the point of nearly halting anything getting done.
8) Refuse to let people do their jobs, then give out to them for it!
How many times have we met candidates who were hired for a job that they were not allowed to do! I met a graduate the other day who was hired as an accounts assistant but ended up selling products on the showroom floor.
9) Treat people the same, regardless of their experience:
A good manager must adjust to their audience, don’t treat 10+ years experienced employees the same as those with less than one year! This is a sign that the manager does not have the confidence (or experience) to manage experience.
10) Don’t learn new skills or improve existing ones:
This boss feels, why should they learn stuff when they have people to do stuff! They fail to learn even the most elementary technology like email attachments, making their staff do that in addition to their own work.
11) Only communicate the trivial:
This manager can’t deliver big news that is in any way negative. They communicate on small, insignificant things and don’t tell anyone about challenges in the business, changes in process or even positive news.
12) Build a sense of importance by talking about how busy they are all the time:
This manager constantly tells their team how busy they are, how they had to catch up by working all weekend. They have to remind everyone how they are busier and thus work harder than everybody else. Often these are the same people who talk excessively at work.
If you wish to read the full ShelfLife Magazine February 2022 Issue, you can do so by clicking here.
