101 Biggest Mistakes Managers Make and How to Avoid Them

Table Of Contents

Introduction

Chapter 1 – Mistakes in Dealing with Workers

1-1: Setting one worker against another

1-2: Showing favoritism not based on performance

1-3: Continuing to deal as a co-worker with people you now manage

1-4: Talking about a worker’s personal issues with others

1-5: Taking workers for granted

1-6: Criticizing without complimenting

1-7: Being too lax with your workgroup

1-8: Being too strict with your workgroup

1-9: Not keeping your workers fully trained

1-10: Not encouraging your workers to improve

1-11: Permitting workers who need to work together to compete

1-12: Holding on to workers when they want to leave

Chapter 2 – Mistakes in Dealing with Performance

2-1: Not having clear objectives

2-2: Not having clear standards

2-3: Not arranging for feedback

2-4: Praising without knowing the facts

2-5: Not noticing good work

2-6: Not dealing with substandard work

2-7: Not allowing workers to make their own mistakes

2-8: Rewarding safe mediocrity

2-9: Using “only one can win” rewards

2-10: Expecting the annual performance review to improve performance

2-11: Not using appropriate competition with other workgroups as a motivator

Chapter 3 – Mistakes in Making Assignments

3-1: Giving assignments that aren’t clear

3-2: Always delegating to the same few workers

3-3: Keeping the most challenging work for yourself

3-4: Delegating without controls

3-7: Giving poorly done work to someone else to complete

3-8: Letting a worker delegate back to you

3-9: Letting workers play “that’s not my job”

Chapter 4 – Mistakes in Dealing with Your Customers

4-1: Ignoring customers

4-2: Substituting your judgment for thatof your customers

4-3: Not letting workers deal with their customers

4-4: Treating all of your customers as though they were alike

4-5: Not seeing your customers’ changing needs

4-6: Refusing to work with your customers

4-7: Not educating your customers

4-8: Ignoring your suppliers

4-9: Not being a good customer

Chapter 5 – Mistakes in Providing Information

5-1: Not keeping your workgroup informed

5-2: Giving your workgroup incomplete information

5-3: Not keeping your workers aware of the “big picture”

5-4: Not keeping your boss informed

5-5: Getting caught up in the office rumor mill

5-6: Not inviting negative information from your boss

5-7: Not inviting negative information from your workgroup

5-8: Not passing information to other managers

Chapter 6 – Mistakes in Relationships with Other Workgroups

6-1: Letting your workgroup hold a grudge against another workgroup

6-2: Letting your workgroup take competition between workgroups too seriously

6-3: Letting your workgroup look down on other workgroups

6-4: Letting your workgroup blame problems on other workgroups

6-5: Letting other managers steal workers from you

6-6: Letting other workgroups take oer parts of your workgroup’s mission

6-7: Accepting boring or no-win duties for your workgroup from other workgroups

Chapter 7 – Mistakes in Using Technology

7-1: Rejecting new technology

7-2: Getting technology for technology’s sake

7-3: Letting someone else be responsible for picking new technology for your workgroup

7-4: Not letting workers use technology fully

7-5: Trying to solve performance problems with technology

7-6: Automating an existing process without improving it first

7-7: Letting technology make work more boring for the workgroup

Chapter 8 – Mistakes in Managing Teams

8-1: Trying to manage a team as a traditional supervisor

8-2: Not developing commitment to the team’s mission

8-3: Dealing with team members solely as individuals

8-4: Not developing and living by team norms

8-5: Pushing the team to make decisions too quickly

8-6: Not supporting the team

8-7: Trying to prevent the team from surfacing and resolving conflict

Chapter 9 – Mistakes in Dealing with Your Boss

9-1: Not recognizing your boss’ important issues

9-2: Not working to make your boss successful

9-3: Knuckling under to your boss

9-4: Not acting like a team player

9-5: Not taking on high-payoff but risky assignments

9-6: Taking on risky projects with little payoff

9-7: Telling your boss “that’s not my job”

9-8: Not representing your workers to your boss

9-9: Not representing your boss to your workers

9-10: Going along with your boss’ unethical behavior

Chapter 10 – Mistakes in Your Reactions as Part of the Organization

10-1: Not seeing the “big picture”

10-2: Not working with other managers

10-3: Badmouthing your boss, other managers, or the organization

10-4: Not carrying your share of the load

10-5: Not looking at problems in depth

10-6: Being too narrow in your approach to problems

10-7: Ignoring office politics

10-8: Not understanding and following the organization’s culture

10-9: Letting the job get to you

Chapter 11 – Mistakes in Essential Management Skills

11-1: Not keeping your word

11-2: Not understanding that workers really are different from one another

11-3: Concentrating on mistakes, not learning

11-4: Judging workers, not their behavior

11-5: Not getting the facts first

11-6: Trying to manage by criticism and fear

11-7: Being defensive to criticism

11-8: Not building a trusting atmosphere

11-9: Not making the workgroup mission clear

11-10: Not training and developing workers

11-11: Not helping new workers develop self-management skills

11-12: Not networking with other managers

Index