Do you spend your entire working day checking emails? Have you become the king or queen of meetings? Do you manage yourself but no one else? If this sounds familiar, read on (before you check your next email).
By Rita Tvede Bartolomei
- Many managers forget that being a leader doesn't mean doing everything yourself, or micromanaging employees. Your main task is to help others become the best version of themselves. Your most important task as a leader is not to check emails constantly, or to call sleep-inducing meetings with no goal or meaning," says Øyvind Tjernæs, Leadership Developer for FRONT Leadership.
Øyvind Tjernæs
Leadership developer, FRONT Leadership
Now he's going to take you through what he believes are the 5 most common traps managers fall into:
1) You live and breathe to check your email
"I just need to check my email," is a recurring line among managers, Øyvind points out.
- "Some people assume that once they become managers, checking emails is one of the most important things they have to do. Then the manager thinks that the employees, no, they have to manage themselves," he says.
But you don't have to check your email constantly. Because if something is really urgent: Then you will get the email again.
- You can be sure of that. As a manager, it's very easy to manage yourself to death. Then you forget to lead, and end up with activities such as the well-known email ritual. At the same time, the manager makes himself or herself inaccessible and closes the door to the office behind him or her," he says.
2) You'll soon have an Olympic gold medal in meetings
One problem many managers have is that they almost meet themselves and their employees in pieces. But without anyone getting anywhere with the meetings.
- Then the manager pulls people out of the workflow and spends an hour, maybe longer, in an unnecessary meeting. My personal opinion is that around 1/3 of all meetings are a total waste of time. Often a kind of FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out) mechanism is triggered: You just have to have that meeting, because it has become an ingrained habit. Some people therefore set up regular meetings every week - without it being necessary," says Øyvind.
His tip for effective meetings (because of course there are some) is to always have a specific goal for the meeting and a structure.
- During the pandemic, it unfortunately became a trend to have too many Teams meetings. They took up every hour of the working day. Employees and managers need the valuable relationship building that comes from chatting at the coffee machine or during lunch," he says.
3) You lead yourself (but no one else)
Because managers don't create the results. Their job is to get others to create the results. They must make others shine. Some managers Øyvind meets in his job have had a habit of keeping their cards very close to their chest.
- Such managers have a perception that once you've been given responsibility for a huge number of tasks, you should carry out all of them yourself. This is not the case. Many people believe that. But no one can do everything themselves. Even Batman had Robin," he says.
Many managers are skilled subject matter experts, which is why they are unable to completely abandon this role as managers.
- Although they are not necessarily tyrannical, they are convinced that the job is best done by themselves. All by themselves," says the leadership developer.
4) You are terrified of conflict and want to please everyone (all the time)
It's actually possible to be an overly well-intentioned, diplomatic leader. Even if you are a good leader in several other areas, you will fail in your role if you have to please absolutely everyone.
- It is as Lieutenant General Robert Mood has stated: "Leadership is not necessarily a popularity contest". Sometimes you have to cut through and say that's the way it's going to be," says Øyvind.
Because it's not possible to satisfy everyone's needs, every single day, 365 days a year. You can't give all employees a vacation for the first 3 weeks of July, and not everyone in the company can decide where the Christmas party should be.
5) You are a controlling, self-cultivating tyrant
Tyrannical managers believe that employees should be treated like a lawn: Beaten often, and kept down. These managers are not only the best at everything, they simply don't trust anyone. They are paranoid and always think the worst of their employees. In addition, they have an arrogant tendency to shoot from the hip: Without having a clue about the consequences of their decisions. They always know best.
- Then the professional advisors stand there like aquarium fish and don't understand anything. Managers like this lack trust in others and have to check what employees are doing all the time. These are deviation-oriented managers who create internal discord and a culture of fear. Where everyone is afraid of doing something wrong, and no one plays well with each other," says Øyvind Tjernæs.
Manipulation is also a characteristic. They may call you one evening in a sugary-sweet voice. Then they point out how important it is that you get a good night's rest:
- But first you have to do a very important task for the company. I need you to do that task now," says Øyvind.
