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Every great team needs great leadership. If certain management habits are lacking, they may be harming not only your performance but also that of your team. Here are seven management habits to watch for and ways to improve them to move your team forward.

Weak Prioritization

Every manager is busy—but are you so busy you can’t find time to work on regular tasks, or departmental targets? If so, you’re directing your energy toward the wrong goals, to the detriment of your career and your team’s well-being. Take a hard look at what is essential for long-term success, and start there.

Low Targets

Setting targets low can seem like a good idea; it helps your team reach them easily and it helps you avoid negative feedback from failing to meet more ambitious goals. Unfortunately, it also teaches your team that mediocrity is good enough. Consider putting goals just a bit out of reach, then building your team’s abilities to reach them.

Relying Solely on Performance Indicators

Performance numbers can help you assess the team, but if you use them as your sole source of management information, you’re missing key opportunities to teach, demonstrate and inspire. Work with your team directly, and only look at the numbers at specific times during the year.

Playing the Blame Game

When your team doesn’t reach a goal, whose fault is it?

If the first name on that list isn’t your own, take a hard look at the reason why. Managers who place blame on others are demonstrating to their teams what a lack of personal accountability looks like—and they should expect their teams to start dodging responsibility, as well.

Overplanning

Extensive plans may impress upper management, but they can also waste your time and confuse your team. Instead of writing highly detailed plans, make sure you cover the key points in a concise document your team understands and can implement. Ultimately, upper management will be more impressed with results than with words.

Playing Team Politics

Yes, managers should know what the prevailing team gossip and tensions are. But if you know these things because you enjoy playing a part in them, rethink your approach. Great leaders pay attention to gossip not for the drama, but so they can understand and address the underlying issues that lead to tension between team members.

Being the Void

It’s easy to hold an “open forum” to listen to team members’ ideas and feedback. Understanding and implementing those ideas is the hard part. If you don’t commit to the latter, however, you’re simply setting up your team to “scream into the void.” Demonstrate that your team’s communication matters by responding to it productively.

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