Alongside all other things, business management has also evolved from being controlling and conservative into a more trusting and engaging relationship. Leadership is taking a shift from transactional to transformative and participative.
Old school leadership practices are continuing to witness its demise as newer and innovative practices gain greater ground in the world of business management.
Here’s a list of some leadership practices you want to avoid if you really want to embrace this new kind of leadership.
- Everything has to be centralized. Gone are the days when you micromanaged your company or division. Now is the era of decentralization. The era of crowdsourcing. Distribute the responsibility to your team and give them the liberty to decide and proceed. This practice will boost productivity, and above all, trust among your colleagues. If you think you cannot give away some control because it would create a complete caos in your organization. Then take Wikipedia as a good example of how well crowdsourcing works. You´ve got to trust your people. If you think you cannot then you´re doing something wrong. You are not hiring the right people.
- Acting as Mr. Know-It-All. Do not insult your colleagues (and especially yourself) by pretending you don’t need them because you know everything. Come on. You know that´s not true. Your colleagues are smart and can be very helpful to the business. Give them the opportunity to show their knowledge and talents. Trust in their abilities and benefit from it. Create a way so that everyone knows everybody’s expertise and project they are working on. That way, whenever they have a question they can ask to the right person instead of sending you tons of emails with questions you don´t have the answers for. Let them connect to each other and interact.
- Stop playing the policeman at the office. Don´t walk around everyone´s desk to check what they are doing. That doesn´t help. It interrupts them. You can´t get work done if your boss is constantly at your desk checking if you´re working well. Instead of creating an atmosphere of fear, start being the interested boss. Engage in conversations. Listen to your co-workers ideas. Implement the good ideas and give all the credit to the person who came out with it.
- Unproductive meetings. Stop calling for meetings for every single thing. Truth is you´ll be wasting your co-workers time often. Meetings are time consuming and frequently have agendas so vague that nobody is really sure of the goal. Instead post in one of the groups of yoursocial intranet the topic or idea you´ll like to talk about and mention the people you wanted to invite to the meeting. You´ll get answers and comments from them and you´ll do it in a fraction of the time a meeting takes.
- Leaving no room for mistakes. Your business is not a military boot camp. It is an environment where people should learn from their mistakes. Mistakes should be treated as learning blocks that will teach them how to do and be better. Nurture a workplace that serves as the breeding ground for their bright ideas.
There is no better time to start than now. Yes, right now. Start by implementing a few changes in your leadership routine. You´ll see how much more productive everything becomes.
Do you think these 5 tips would help your business?
