The 12 Signs: How to know when you’re slowly but surely becoming a bad manager

No one sets out to become a bad boss. Yet, slowly but surely, it’s easy to become the bad manager we all dread. Times are stressful. You’re trying to make things happen. You notice your team isn’t as engaged as they should be. You can feel your patience getting shorter and shorter. You feel stuck and exasperated about leading your team. The more you do, the worse it seems to get. Then, a sinking feeling hits you: You might be becoming a bad manager. I’ve had that sinking feeling in my own stomach before, too. Especially in the early days of running <a href="http://knowyourteam.com/m/features/?utm_source=medium&utm_medium=cta" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" target="_blank">Know Your Team</a>, I was plagued with self-doubt. “Am I doing this right?” I wondered. “Am I falling into the trap of doing things that I’ve hated in other bosses?” Since then, I recognized the early signs of a bad manager — the kind of manager I dreaded working for. Now, I’d like to share these signs with you, so you can hopefully avoid these pitfalls and get back on track to being the good manager you want to be. <h2>Sign #1: You think an employee “should already know that.”</h2> When you’re a leader, you benefit from having all the information. Yet we forget that the rest of the team does not have that same information. Don’t fall into the trap of assuming that employees “should already know that.” Instead, consider why your team doesn’t have the information they need and own that shortcoming yourself. Good leaders know it’s on themselves to <a href="https://knowyourteam.com/m/features/heartbeats/?utm_source=medium&utm_medium=cta%3B%3D" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" target="_blank">make sure the team knows what they need to know</a>. <h2>Sign #2: You find yourself saying “No” more often than “Why not?” or “Could this work later?”</h2> In times of uncertainty, we as leaders have a <a href="https://hbr.org/2013/07/innovation-isnt-an-idea-proble" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" target="_blank">bias against creativity</a>. A great leader understands this and adjusts for this bias. She knows that good ideas and suggestions take many forms — and saying “no” to something right away could be shortchanging your team. Not to mention, it’s demoralizing for your team to always have their ideas constantly turned down. Consider: Are you becoming a bad manager because you’re too closed off to new ideas? <a href="https://medium.com/signal-v-noise/the-12-signs-how-to-know-when-youre-slowly-but-surely-becoming-a-bad-manager-82fd5baff33d">Click Here</a>