Learning from Your Mistakes: How Leaders Can Impact Positive Change

As a leader in your company, the culture you create for your team should be a top priority. A positive work environment promotes productivity, healthy working relationships and an overall sense of satisfaction. But despite your best efforts to cultivate a positive environment, it is very common to encounter a few roadblocks along the way.

Here are some common mistakes you may encounter as a company leader, and tips for turning each into a catalyst for positive change.

The Mistake: You’ve Taken on Too Much

When you’re trying to be a good leader, it is all too easy to take on more than you can handle. No single person on any team, including the leader, should shoulder the burden alone. Overloading your schedule with meetings and tasks that could easily be delegated to other members of your team will only cause burnout. A burned-out leader is less effective and less productive, and ultimately less content. That feeling of discontent can trickle down the ranks of your team and affect everyone around you.

The Fix: Delegate

For many people, learning to delegate is easier said than done. But your team will appreciate the even distribution of tasks, as it will boost their feelings of being valued members of the office culture while also relieving you of stress that may be negatively impacting the environment. When you learn to effectively delegate, everybody wins.

The Mistake: Your Team Doesn’t Get Along

When building a team that is comprised of many different personalities, work styles and priorities, it is nearly impossible to ensure that everyone has a friendly relationship. Tempers can flare up in the face of strict deadlines or sometimes the rumor mill can start churning up counterproductive office gossip. Disagreements and lack of teamwork distract from the task at hand and weaken the bonds you hope to forge with your team.

The Fix: No Drama Policy

It’s easy to say that disrespect and instigating trouble are not tolerated in your office, but do you really have clear boundaries in place that have been communicated to your team? Is there a consequence for disrupting the work environment or demonstrating disrespect for another team member? Establish a policy on disruptive behavior that clearly outlines how such actions will be handled. Communicate with your team that such policies are in place to ensure that each team member feels valued and respected within the company. Assure your staff members that they can safely communicate their concerns with management with an understanding that the situation will be handled appropriately and not ignored. Communicating your respect for your team and stressing the importance of each person’s comfort level within the work environment will contribute to a much more positive environment for everyone.

The Mistake: Your Team is Losing Focus

Have you ever stood in front of your team at a meeting and watched as their eyes glazed over, one by one, until you felt like you were speaking to a room full of zombies? It happens in offices everywhere and while those daily meetings may seem like a good way to communicate with your team, it’s likely that your message is missing its mark.

The Fix: Fewer Meetings

There is no written law that meetings are a requirement for all companies, and yet most companies are still sticking to the morning meeting routine. The problem is that much of the information falls on exhausted, multi-tasking minds. It’s time to get innovative and cut back on all the meetings. Find a more engaging way to communicate with your team on a personal scale instead of filing them all into a room and talking at them. Send a video email that your employees can check out when they have the best opportunity to really listen, or schedule smaller meetings that allow for more discourse between management and staff. And in those smaller meetings, make sure that the voice of each team member is really being heard. Value their input and demonstrate your willingness to listen, and you are sure to create a much more positive, productive atmosphere.

These are just a few of the minor issues that many offices encounter, but if left unchecked, they can manifest into much more complicated troubles. Your office should be a place where employees feel valued, respected and supported in their efforts. So your goal should always be to correct the mistakes that are interfering with those values and impact positive changes that propel the company to a more inclusive and contented culture.

When it comes to managing the daily tasks of time tracking, employee benefits, and payroll, mistakes can be avoided using a comprehensive and easy-to-use HCM platform. Request a demonstration of the cloud-based iSolved solution and see how it can work for you.

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