17 Misconceptions of Young Leaders: Part 2

17 Misconceptions of Young Leaders: Part 2

CleverControl keeps finding out what errors of the inexperienced leaders are the most frequent ones.

The subordinates won’t deliver

Dorothy Richardson continues:

“If we talk about “mature” leaders, we can notice that they often do not allow the subordinates to grow by remaining confident that they cannot deliver on entrusted tasks. Some experienced managers are convinced that they are indispensable and are often not ready for internal changes of company’s structure, which occur under the influence of changes in the economic situation. Some experienced managers are wrong in the fact that their employees don't need to be taught, that they must learn everything by themselves. However, the fact is that managers have to guide their employees and not teach everything from scratch.”

Subordinates should not "know too much"

Says Christina Levin, senior trainer-consultant at Inter Thunder:

"I won't give my staff enough information, as it can be leaked to the competitors." Great Russian military leader Alexander Suvorov believed that giving each soldier all necessary information in full before making an attack is crucial. There are much more pros of this than there are cons of information leakage".

To achieve the goal it’s enough to try a little harder; to make it in time it is enough to just be quicker

Johnny Daniels, General Director of the center for business development and career "ProsWise comments:

“Novice supervisors tend to overestimate their power, yearn to prove their worth, and have little experience. Because of this, they develop a lot of typical misconceptions:

  • The most important thing is to set a goal work a little harder and everything will work out perfectly and almost immediately.
  • Team and relationships with people are very important. The team will support me and will be my shoulder to lean on.
  • All people want to work to achieve good results and strive to develop. The only thing you need is to motivate them properly.
  • I know how to do everything but the people around me are stupid and lazy, so they cannot be trusted anything and I have to do everything by myself.
  • My planner is too small. The tasks “do not fit” in the daily and weekly schedule. It is necessary to speed up to make everything planned in time."

Any issue must be "stored" for a while

Johnny Daniels continues:

"Managers with experience already got to know the taste of victories and defeats, experienced excitement and disappointment, and now they look at everything with cool and cynicism. This position creates misconceptions of another kind:

  • Tasks are never-ending, projects come one after another, and health and nervous system cannot heal like magic.
  • Before you start to do something, it is necessary to think things through and to postpone the issue. Then you need to think it through again. And if the issue doesn’t disappear only then you have to deal with.
  • If there is a possibility of difficulties arising during a project, they will arise. And they will turn up not only where you expect them to.
  • The results of the projects are always below expectations, and the spent resources are always above.
  • Human nature is primitive: only the fears and vices motivate to work.

When the cat’s away, the mice won’t play

Comments Brian Cook, the founder of cloud service for remote administration SlamTools:

"The misconception is "my subordinates are as motivated, as I am". Be prepared that as soon as you walked out the door, each subordinate will get busy with their personal business. And when you're on vacation, your subordinates are also on one."

Says Amy Foster, Director of the creative agency NowGun:

"The biggest misconception of new entrepreneurs is to blindly trust the staff both managerial and niche. You might face financial theft, the theft of documents, and loss of your client base.

The main rule here is to trust less, to sign legally foolproof agreements with employees, to create document storage system in the company, and to transfer more data to the cloud under secure password."

The leader is not a salesman

It is very much wrong. Brian Cook continues:

"Another misconception is that "the Head of a Department may not engage in sales at all". In fact, every leader needs to engage in "selling" their results and be able to "sell" ideas to his subordinates."

Here are some other interesting articles: