15 Destructive Habits Every Leader Needs To Let Go Of

Author: Deep Patel / Source: Forbes

Mistakes are a part of life. However, when a mistake becomes a habit, it can have disastrous consequences. This is especially true for those in leadership positions.

Whether we are aware of them or not, most of us have habits that limit our ability to be great leaders. These destructive mental traps hold us back. They make us ineffective. They kill the productivity and creativeness of those around us. Being aware of these dangerous leadership traps is the first step toward avoiding or correcting them.

Whether you are just starting out in a leadership role or have been in a position of management for years, here are 15 destructive habits you need to cut out now.

1. Not Making Time For Reflection

During the crush of a busy day, it may feel impossible to make time to reflect on your goals—to consider how you should define your vision and how you want to communicate with others. So much of a busy leader’s day is spent putting out fires and keeping things rolling along. But it’s important to make time to methodically revisit how your day went. Did you accomplish your goals for the day? How did you interact with others?

Taking a few minutes in the evening to check in with yourself, consider how the day went and decide what changes you want to make tomorrow can help you stay on course, both personally and professionally.

2. Lacking Initiative

We all know leaders who fail to check their facts before making a decision. They are careless, hasty and negligent. These are the hallmarks of a lazy manager who does the minimum needed to get by.

The end result is sloppy work—on the leaders’ part because they don’t put in the time to do the job correctly, and on the part of their workers, because if the boss doesn’t care, then why should they? So if you are just counting the hours until you go home, it’s time for a major wake-up call. If you want others to put themselves out there and do good work, you have to be willing to model the same.

3. Micromanaging

If all you do is zero in on details and nitpick your team’s work, don’t be surprised when morale drops off a cliff, your people flee to find new jobs and productivity plummets. A micromanager can crush a team’s creativity and ingenuity. An overly controlling leader establishes a tone of mistrust and limits others’ ability to grow.

Instead, make sure to prioritize what matters. Good leaders know how to delegate and give those under them room to accomplish tasks in their own unique way. Be upfront with your team about what really matters to you, about what your goals are and what your vision is. And then step back and give them space to flourish on their own.

4. Not Listening

You may think you are making the best use of time by responding to emails while you’re sitting in a meeting, but what you are really doing is engaging in a form of passive-aggressive disrespect for your colleagues.

When someone else is talking, it’s important to practice active listening. This means fully concentrating on what is being said. It means being engaged, paying attention and giving feedback, such as maintaining eye contact and nodding to show that you are following what they are saying.

5. Ignoring Feedback

As a leader, you have to be confident in your decisions and willing to take a stand and act on your instincts. But you also need to be open-minded enough to hear the opinions of others and be receptive to their ideas. By dismissing opposing views, you may be ignoring important feedback that will help you make good decisions in the future.

That doesn’t mean you blindly accept what others are saying; it means you are open-minded enough to try to see things from their point of view, and then consider how that information might be valuable to you.

6. Not Following Through

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