So far I have shared 4 mistakes managers or even parents make with their people or kids. Another mistake is we condone incompetent behavior by ignoring it, rather than confronting it quickly and effectively. I’ll save how to confront effectively for later. What we do is ignoring it is we think it ‘s no big deal and will probably go away. We see it again and again let it pass but the third time we see it we get mad and what we do is attack the person and not deal with the behavior. We belittle the person or worse, read them the riot act in front of their peers because we think everyone needs to hear this message. All that does is kill our relationship with everyone and does nothing to resolve the situation.
The next mistake I want to share is probably one of the more frustrating. We feel it’s our job to motivate our people. You might inspire but you can’t motivate. Motivation is internal and personal. A person either has or they don’t. If they don’t you can’t give it to them. In 35 years in the training industry I’ve seen more time wasted and money spent on motivational programs that are so short lived. Think about a manager sends a person to a motivational program. When they come back, they are like a changed person. “Excuse me while I run through the wall.” After a few days what do they look like? The same old person! When I say we can’t motivate, it could be a misnomer because Leaders train and develop the skills of people to allow the natural motivation to come out of the person. There is a huge difference between building skills and motivational feel good material.
In case you are wondering I have been sharing mistakes that come from a book authored by W. Steven Brown entitled “13 Fatal Errors Managers Make….and How You Can Avoid Them.” This book is the foundation for our multimedia training system entitled “Leadership in Action. You will fund more information on this system, including a video preview, on the above on the drop down tab. Please feel free to explore our site and if you or someone you know are interested in learning more about our training systems, please contact me. Thanks and have a great day!