There is no official handbook you receive once you make it to a managerial position.
If you haven’t gone to business school or taken management courses, you may feel the struggle that many leaders face when trying to manage their teams.
Read below to learn the 3 biggest mistakes that leaders make and in order to take measures to avoid doing the same.
Too Much Talking, Not Enough Listening
One of the quintessential mistakes that many managers make is believing that they need to do all of the talking, but none of the listening.
Yes, you must provide an overview of a new project, yes you must delegate responsibilities, and, yes, you must provide feedback, but you should also devote just as much, if not more, time to listening to your employees.
When managers don’t have the skills to actively listen to their team, a host of problems ensues.
First, the staffers will make mistakes because they were either too scared to ask for clarification, or the manager didn’t really listen to their concerns.
Second, the employees don’t feel valued and empowered, and believe that they are simple members of an assembly line who can be replaced.
Third, true teamwork never develops because there is only one-way communication, which doesn’t foster empathy, common understanding and respect.
Not Motivating The Team
While it’s a fact that your workers do their jobs for compensation, that doesn’t mean your position doesn’t require the need to motivate them to work more productively.
There is a big difference between an employee who comes in and does their bare minimum to receive a paycheck, and another employee who feels it their duty and mission to do what’s best for their department and company.
If you don’t know how to motivate your team, you will see a loss in productivity and a low corporate morale.
Therefore, you must learn what motivates your staff members; an important thing to remember is that it’s not always money! It can be verbal praise, promotion, time off, etc.!
Unfortunately, the large percentage of managers are not great leaders as they simply don’t know how much input they need to make into their staff’s activities.
A micromanager doesn’t trust their colleagues to make their own decisions, so instead of delegating responsibilities, they involve themselves in every part of the project.
On the other hand, a boss that is too hands off alienates themselves from the team completely, and makes them feel alone.
Either of these leadership qualities doesn’t benefit the team or the company.
There is no official handbook you receive once you make it to a managerial position. 
