Effective work habits determine whether a business leader steers the company toward success or creates operational hiccups that drive employees to work for competitors. Successful business leaders come in many forms, but they all know how to prioritize on a small scale to accomplish big goals. Leaders who value progress should evaluate themselves to eliminate bad habits that prevent the team from reaching its full potential.
1. Untrustworthy Behavior
Business leaders sabotage their chances of success when they behave dishonestly toward employees, establish double standards or fail to build cooperative relationships. Recruiting the best talent is pointless if employees lose confidence in upper management and feel that they have no recourse to solve problems.
2. Chronic Indecisiveness
Poor leaders deliberately stall a process or leave decisions to others to avoid taking responsibility for failure. Good leaders must be risk-takers. They analyze the data as well as possible and look for the big picture, but ultimately, they take a leap of faith and commit to a decision. If that choice proves unsuccessful, they approach the problem from a new angle and try again.
3. Poor Communication
Business leaders need well-honed communication skills to convey clear ideas to employees, absorb feedback and tap into client needs. Scarce or poorly planned communication prevents employees from understanding the company vision and aligning their work habits to achieve the company's goals.
4. Micromanagement
A leader's inability to delegate responsibility leads to dependent employees with limited growth potential. Employees become resentful when their skills are constantly questioned, and the leader wastes time handling inconsequential tasks while neglecting workflow problems that demotivate the entire team.
5. Popularity Crisis
When their top priority is popularity, business leaders start basing important decisions on satisfying the interests of friends, rather than improving results for the company. Being well-liked is important, but good leaders recognize when change is necessary and use their charisma and vision to get the team on board.
6. Lack of Insight
From self-evaluation to professional insight, the worst leaders are unable to analyze possibilities and anticipate problems. They are repeatedly blindsided by foreseeable obstacles because they fail to address underlying causes, acknowledge their weaknesses or adapt their plans.
7. No Accountability
Good business leaders know they should serve as role models, and that includes accepting accountability for problems or poor decisions. Leaders who are masters of the blame game sow discontent and irresponsibility throughout the company, making employees less motivated to communicate productively and look for solutions.
8. Lazy Attitude
Lazy leaders create a toxic work environment in which employees are forced to deal with sloppy work and use subterfuge to overcome simple obstacles. They resist innovation, avoid re-evaluating outdated policies and base their decisions on flimsy assumptions, putting the burden of initiative on everyone else.
9. Disempowerment
Self-serving leaders know that knowledge is power, so they try to solidify their own importance and control competition by keeping employees out of the loop. In reality, great leaders are always on the rise, and they foster success at every level of the company by cultivating talent and giving employees the tools they need to excel.
While many companies can survive under bad business leaders, they often develop poor reputations and attract weaker talent over time. Forward-thinking companies learn to phase out destructive business habits and overcome past mistakes.
Photo courtesy of Master isolated images at FreeDigitalPhotos.net
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