Here are a number of things that managers, supervisors and leaders may do, either on purpose or by accident, that can be very destructive to morale, attitude and performance. If these behaviors and attitudes exist in your leadership team, it could be because people have been promoted from within and never given the proper leadership tools to use. Another reason could be a manager or leader who is creating an environment or culture which reinforces these behaviors in the leaders who report to them.

Play favorites - managers who obviously treat people differently based on liking them better, only tick off the other team members who begin to feel like second class citizens. It’s even worse when the favorite person isn’t a top performer. While the manager or supervisor should motivate each person as an individual, they should be seen as fair and equitable to all team members. A manager who plays favorites will never be able to create a high performance team.

Let your people know who’s boss – do what I say, not what I do – For the supervisor or manager who does not lead by example, their people are more likely to follow what the leader does, rather than what they say. It is better when the words and actions are the same – that way the team receives a consistent message about expectations.

Be inconsistent and moody – keep people guessing - Being difficult to predict from day-to-day confuses team members. Being cheerful one minute and angry the next makes a manager unapproachable. This leads to a lack of communication and sharing because people are afraid of repercussions. An effective manager should be somewhat consistent and predictable in their style so that people feel comfortable bringing both good news and bad.

Change senior managers frequently so you don’t get too attached to them - a favorite of larger corporations is to keep changing senior managers before they can have a positive impact on the performance of a business unit. This reinforces short term thinking and does not lead to transformational leadership. This is not a bad strategy for a mature stable business unit with few prospects for growth – it is a disaster for a business unit in need of turnaround.

Talk about other team members behind their back - Managers and supervisors may think they are not being destructive by discussing performance issues with other employees. The result though is a lack of respect for the leader and proliferation of gossip and grapevine communications.

Pay lip service to company policies but ignore them in practice - It’s self-destructive for a manager or supervisor to tell their team that company policies are important and then turn around and not enforce those policies consistently. What ends up happening is that the leader loses the respect of their people and finds it more difficult to reign in behaviors that do not support company policy. Be firm and fair in insisting that company policies be followed.

Don’t bother with long term vision – just get the numbers out - Short sighted managers don’t bother with developing a vision for the long term. As a result, their departments don’t dramatically improve over a period of time. It also does not develop any excitement or motivation for team members. Create a picture of the future and share it with the team.

Ignore performance problems – shift the work to the good employees - Inadvertently, some managers punish their good performers by getting them to do the work of the weaker performers. For the manager, they figure why not, it’s an easy solution. The good performers go along with this for a while and then realize they are being taken advantage of and their morale declines. The poor performers appreciate the free ride they are getting and ask themselves, “Why change if the manager won’t confront me?” The right thing to do is confront poor performance and correct it.

Don’t bother training people, they’ll just leave anyway - the manager or supervisor who believes that training is a waste of time and money is out of touch with the multiple benefits that ongoing training provides. Training is a motivator to those it is offered to – it shows the company and manager are willing to invest in building the skills of the individual – this is especially important to good performers. Upgrading skills and abilities can’t help but have a positive impact on performance. Zig Ziglar, the motivational speaker and trainer said, “It is better to train someone and risk losing them, than to not train them and keep them.”

Put everybody through training rather than correcting an individual performance problem - Managers who hope that the worst performer will gain the most from a training workshop are misleading themselves. In most cases, the medium to good performers will improve the most from training. Poor performers often don’t even think they need training, let alone actually apply their new skills on the job. By all means, provide training to improve performance, but not in place of confronting and correcting poor performance.

Hire just about anybody – if they don’t work out you can replace them - Thankfully, most companies have realized that the quality of their hiring and promotion decisions directly impact their performance and are very expensive and difficult to reverse. Some managers still get caught in the never-ending cycle of hiring anyone with a pulse, only to be disappointed when they don’t perform. Better to be understaffed than to hire the wrong people. Many companies are using assessment tools such as Unique’s Prevue Assessment to hire and promote more effectively.

Communicate as little as possible – why disclose any more than you have to? - Although there is probably a small chance that a leader might be too communicative, the reality is that most managers don’t communicate either enough information or the right information. Leaders need to reflect on the type of information their teams need and how to best deliver that information. Listening skills help the leader stay in touch with feedback their team may be providing. Want to know what to communicate more of? Just listen to the concerns people raise and the misinformation that is floating around – then build a communication strategy to address those issues.

When people don’t meet your expectations, belittle them, they’ll get the hint - Supervisors and managers often have a great deal of loyalty to the company and get ticked off when some of their employees do not perform to the manager’s expectations. Rather than viewing this as a developmental opportunity, they put down the employee, over manage them and make them feel inadequate. Not showing respect to individuals results in a lack of respect for the supervisor and the company. Instead leaders should diagnose the reason the person is not performing and apply corrective action. Recurring problems may need to be handled through the progressive disciplinary system.

Use sarcasm as your primary communication style – people can read between the lines, can’t they? - While sarcasm runs rampant in most organizations, managers, supervisors and leaders should be cautious that they are not sending mixed messages to their team. Sarcasm can be defined as when the tone and emphasis does not match the actual message being delivered. Employees do not know whether the manager is being serious or joking and therefore may take things the wrong way. Make sure performance feedback, either praise or corrective is delivered in a straightforward and non-sarcastic way.

Ignore the really big issues and problems – focus on the small stuff it’s easier - Does your company have a nagging, significant and persistent problem that has not been successfully addressed and resolved? Rather than dealing with that issue, many companies ignore it and deal with lots of other smaller issues. If the payback is significant, why not seriously tackle the big issue?

Blame not getting things done on being too busy - Managers and leaders who complain about being too busy to work on important things need to analyze where their time is being spent and focus on priority items. Typically only 20% of our time generates 80% of results. That means that 80% of out time is spent on unimportant activities. Confront your time wasters and stop making excuses – tackle this issue and your effectiveness will improve.

What Can You Do to Correct These Scary Behaviours?

First, consider downloading our free "Destructive Leadership Behaviors Observation Worksheet".

Destructive Behavior Worksheet PDF

Then realize that no matter how many of these bad habits exist in your organization, there is hope. Consider exploring the possibilities of the management, supervisory and team leader training and coaching offered by Unique Training & Development. Call us at (866)700-9043, (519)685-2116, email info@uniquedevelopment.com.

Check out our new approach to leadership:

Leadership Outline