Deep Dive: Management Mistakes

What first time managers do always wrong.

Yay! Management.

Nay! Managers make mistakes. No (first-time) manager can avoid them. It is silly to think, your management journey will be smooth. Even if you have the best MBA or Ph.D. in organizational development.

You will make them.

Here are my top 10 you will inevitably go through. I did, too.

The good news is you will learn from them. So, just expect them. Take a lesson and move on. Remember the first year is the worst.

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Contents:

1. Management expectations or better fallacy

2. Mindset rules it all

3. Management mistakes

   1. Superhero effort

   2. Micromanaging

   3. No critics, no enemies

   4. Unclear expectations

   5. The urge to be liked

   6. Underestimated feedback

   7. Treating their teams as adults

   8. “I know” attitude

   9. Failing to manage upwards

   10. Loading shoulders with everyone’s work

4. Too much investment leads to burnout

Wrap Up

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1. Management Expectations or Better Fallacy

Finally, I can write about a fallacy. That’s what I’ve been wanting for a long time!

Haha.

Okay. A fallacy is a flaw or error in reasoning that weakens an argument or makes it invalid. Fallacies often occur in arguments or debates when the logic presented does not hold up under scrutiny.

Many people have a wrong idea about what a management job is:

• "They approve timesheets.”

• “They do performance talks.”

• “They do the same job, but take more money.”

So, they think they can do the management job, too. No problem with them. Until you get promoted and your expectations fall like a paper card castle.

The management fallacy is that promotion will simply be an extension of their previous role. People achieve success with known and mastered skills, so they expect to use the same skills they are familiar with.

Nice.

Did you like doing projects? Great. But now you must also lead, coach, and empower the team.

What inevitably happens is that newly promoted people tend to focus on their beloved projects and productivity. They think they must solve every problem themselves or maintain complete control over projects.

It is a trap!

Credit: https://www.dailydot.com/news/its-a-trap-meme/

Every first-time manager ends up being overworked. You are welcome. That’s your future if you can’t wait for your promotion.

The fallacy blinds you from the reality of effective management. You need to develop new skills such as strategic thinking, capacity management, delegation, or feedback.

Management is not about your skills. It’s about your ability to develop and leverage the skills of the whole team.

So, don’t expect your team to be impressed with your current skills, they want more from you.

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2. Mindset Rules It All

The classic mindset of all first-time managers is:

“I can do it better.”

I hate to spoil it for you. But you can’t.

At least not at the beginning. I’ve been there. I wanted to change the world. Did I succeed? Yes. In my second year.

A first-time management mindset is like diving headfirst into a thrilling yet disorienting rollercoaster.

Forget about whatever you did in the past. It does not matter. The game has changed entirely. Suddenly, you don’t collect fancy email signatures for yourself. You have a whole time to shine.

Managers feel pressure to “prove themselves”. Show them, you can do it. This makes them prone to overworking, obsessively micromanaging, or freezing up when they have to make difficult decisions.

How do you balance authority with empathy? How can you community well? How do you make people motivated? How can you build trust?

Many questions keep you awake at night.

Again, first-time managers want to do it right. However, what they should do instead is to learn from their mistakes. Accept management is a wild ride. You have to hold it tight. It’s always bumpy.

The mindset should be:

“I can do it because I learn from mistakes. ”

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3. Management Mistakes

Now, the fun part.

I’ve done a bunch of them. You probably, too. Or you will. Either way, there is nothing wrong with making mistakes. They make you a better manager.

a. Superhero effort

New managers don’t realize their job is not doing the work themselves. They are invested in projects like they were before.

Mistake!

They struggle to delegate. I was really sad when I had to give up my role as a visualization expert when I got promoted to manager. It was such a fun! And I was good at it.

Sucks. It really sucks to give up what you like.

The trouble is new managers often believe they can do it all. They want to do it themselves since it’s easier or faster to handle tasks on their own.

As you’re already sniffing is right. This approach can lead to burnout and a lack of team development.

You can’t be everywhere. It’s time to put your underwear where it belongs, Superman.

Credit: https://es.pinterest.com/pin/851532242014146746/

All first-time managers are afraid of losing control. Yet, it’s a part of the process. You give control to others. They need to take a grip on details and ensure quality is there. You help them, but you can’t do everything for them.

You cannot save them all.

Yes, you may struggle with an import syndrome. Doubts creep in every management’s mind.