Six of my managerial failures

While writing editorial failures, managerial ones came to mind.

Mainly I see in them the problems of my little experience in management: I have been managing people for about two years. The times when I was a senior specialist and mentored juniors don`t count.

I never learned to lead people anywhere, I learned everything in practice and took into account the successes and failures of my leaders. I am for soft power and trust. I do not welcome hierarchy and excessive control. Though, I often stumbled over this.

1. I trusted too much. Once I found out that a person from my team did not fulfill his obligations to the customer for a long time. The facts came to light after it was impossible to fix anything — the employee quit, and the deadlines were dragged out further. I had to apologize a lot, explain myself, and urgently move tasks to others.

There was another case: the employee did not work all day, went out, and did not warn me. There was a trial period. I found out by chance that he chose this day as a non-working day during a conversation with him the next day (meanwhile an unforeseen task could arise).

After that, I asked him to send me mini-reports every day: what was done during the day and what is he planning to do today. It was unpleasant for me to set micro control, but I saw no other way to maintain control over the situation.

I see no point in scolding or shaming people in such situations. I assume that every employee is an adult. All can I do is to take my own measures, and not press on someone’s conscience, like I’m their mom.

I still have a basic trust in my team members. But now I’m checking.

The review period should be longer than I would like. And it is desirable to make the check inconspicuous: once in a while to collect feedback from customers, to track the fate of randomly selected tasks.

It is not good when a person feels a guard behind his back. This is how fear appears, and with it, creativity and love for work disappear.

When hiring, it is important to weed out the non-committal ones. Such people still need to grow up, and you better not waste time re-educating them.

2. I became a best friend. When an employee shared a difficult situation with me, I was ready to help and support them as a friend. Sometimes to the detriment of work affairs.

Such a position may come down to weak discipline in the team — so that customers will see your employees as nurses who fall into despair from any failure and cannot cope without a kind word.

An adult should be able to support himself on his own, not become a burden for the leader in terms of psychological support. That’s what psychologists are for.

What I understood: your team is undoubtedly close people. It is necessary to treat everyone’s life situations with understanding. But I lead the team not only for psychological support, but also to maintain processes and discipline, so sometimes you can be strict and even tough if the situation requires it.

3. I became a mom. I heard about the employee`s problem — I rushed to solve it, trying to protect the guys from suffering. Like a mother to children. But employees are not children, and suffering is part of their professional life. If people aren`t allowed to live through their painful experiences, they will never grow up.

Customers won`t respect such people, they will see strength only in the leader and turn only to them on all important issues (it, of course, flatters insecure leaders) — and in the meantime, everyone in the team should be a strong player.

4. I left a person unmentored too soon. When I was overloaded, I left a person without supervision in a complicated project. It led to sad situations.

Don`t think that if you don`t have enough hands, then you can urgently hire someone and put them on the project.

This is not how things are done, a person needs adaptation and help for two months (or so). Only then they will be able to deal with the monsters alone. Otherwise, they will make many failures, and this is the fault of the leader.

5. I gave only positive feedback. Because I saw that a person took criticism personally. It was somehow embarrassing to upset a person, and for the most part, I just praised them. It is unprofessional.

The fact is that feedback is associated with potential stress. Maybe because few people know how to give it, or maybe for some other reason. But the fact remains that people get sweaty palms when they are preparing to listen to feedback about themselves.

What I understood: feedback is a must (I recall my supervisor, who didn`t give feedback at all, but either praised strongly and in other time almost screamed).

Feedback should be regular. Moreover, it is important to talk about the positive moments firstly, and then about the negative ones. I would also suggest a couple of solutions on how to cope with the negative points, so that a person immediately understands: everything is solvable, and can be fixed.

6. I helped too much on projects. Sometimes, instead of giving a fishing rod in the employee`s hands, I began to fish myself.

I edited text so that a person could only copy and paste. I went to project calls and generated ideas, instead of my editor, as he sat and was silent (or maybe that’s why he was silent). Sometimes, instead of parting words and ideas, I began to offer the final text to the editor.

This is not only my problem. I think many who manage teams used their position to come up with a “better” solution, although the decisions of the leaders aren`t always better, and often fail, as they have already moved away from active editorial work and may miss nuances. That’s why I’m all for giving freedom and trust. The leader cannot know everything.