Not everyone is born a natural leader, but that doesn’t mean you can’t learn. Becoming a leader is more about taking the step towards new challenges, and responsibilities. Being new to the whole leadership thing can be scary, because you don’t want to make mistakes.
Being a manager doesn’t automatically make you a leader. It is however an important trait all managers should have. Did you just get promoted to a new manager position and you are feeling excited but also overwhelmed? Do you want to avoid making common mistakes most leaders do? Well, you’ve come to the right place.
An increasing number of people decide to not just be a manager, they shift their mindset towards becoming a respected leader. But this mindset will also bring challenges your way, and most likely you will make some mistakes along the way. Here are the 3 most common mistakes a leader makes, so that maybe you can try to avoid them.
1. Providing all the answers
Just because you are becoming a leader, it doesn’t mean that you need to automatically have all the answers. Oftentimes, new leaders have a feeling that they need to know everything, and outsmart everyone in the room. But that is not what being a leader is about. All you need to know is where you can find the answers, or who to talk to.
Because what good can come from you always having the answers to everything? Not much if I’m going to be honest with you. When you always provide the answer to every challenge you and your team is facing, you are making them dependent on you. Your team will always look for you in times of crisis, instead of learning how to face the issue at hand.
As a leader, instead of providing all the answers, help your team to find them by themselves. Provide your team with all the tools they need in order to solve the issue, and try guiding them to the answer. This will encourage your team to think for themselves, and learn how to do their tasks better and better. Even though it might feel good to always have the answers, it will feel even better knowing that your leadership made your team improve.
2. Doing everything yourself
Just like providing the answers to all problems, a lot of leaders also tend to do their employees’ jobs. At least they have the feeling that they should know how to do it, as good or even better than them. But just like providing your team with all the answers, doing their tasks also won’t benefit them.
You see, employees have their job for a reason. They were hired for that very specific reason, and a leader is not expected to be able to do everything their team does. Because if that was the case, there would be no reason to have a team at all. Instead, make sure that you give your team the opportunities they need in order to excel in their role. By allowing everyone – leaders included – to focus on their individual strengths and responsibilities, progress will happen.
3. Feeling or acting superior
Becoming a leader often means that you had some kind of promotion or new job opportunity. Yes, this is often a result of hard work. But becoming or being a leader doesn’t mean that you are better than someone else.
Just like your job plays an important role, so does everyone else’s. A janitor whose job was to clean at NASA was once asked what his job was. His reply? “I’m helping to put a man on the moon”. Yes, he was. Because every job in the organisation matters. Every job is a step in the direction of achieving your company goals.
The best leaders are the ones that are humble, who see the value in every employee. Instead of feeling superior, a good leader looks for ways to help their team achieve their goals. As I already mentioned, a manager and a leader are not the same things. But all managers should do their best to adopt the leadership mindset of motivating, leading, and helping their people to achieve the vision they set.
We hope these 3 common mistakes of new leaders was helpful. Moyyn is an AI based recruiting platform that will match your company to highly skilled professionals across the globe. Access our talent pool of more than 30000 candidates or let us and our AI do the matchmaking for you! Companies pay only after a successful hire or in subscription basis. Moyyn also has flexible pricing models for young startups struggling to get the right talent for their growth. Know more about how you can get candidates easily for the most in-demand positions here.