Supervisory training teaches you about a lot of things you should do, such as how to prepare a performance appraisal, conduct a meeting, divide up work, or manage your time. What it usually leaves out are all the things you shouldn't do-the subtle and not-so-subtle mistakes in managing people that could haunt you the rest of your career.
Now there's a comprehensive, instant-answer guide to avoiding over 100 of the most common mistakes made by managers that no business course ever told you about. This valuable career-enhancing guide details where the pitfalls lie, so you can avoid them more easily, as well as how to recover from a mistake quickly and prevent it from happening again.
You'll discover how to avoid such management blunders as-
. Not having clear objectives
.Delegating the wrong jobs
.Being defensive to criticism
.Ignoring office politics
.Taking on risky projects with little payoff
.Solving performance problems with new technology
.Getting caught up in the rumor mill
.Letting other managers steal away your staff
.And much more!
Armed with this guide, you don't have to complete an entire managerial career realizing your mistakes only after you had to suffer the consequences. You'll know exactly what to do and say in virtually any delicate business situation . . . and boost your success in the process.
Table of Contents:
IntroductionChapter 1 - Mistakes in Dealing with Workers
1-1: Setting one worker against another
1-2: Showing favoritism not based on performance
1-3: Continuing to deal as a co-worker with people you now manage
1-4: Talking about a worker's personal issues with others
1-5: Taking workers for granted
1-6: Criticizing without complimenting
1-7: Being too lax with your workgroup
1-8: Being too strict with your workgroup
1-9: Not keeping your workers fully trained
1-10: Not encouraging your workers to improve
1-11: Permitting workers who need to work together to compete
1-12: Holding on to workers when they want to leave
Chapter 2 - Mistakes in Dealing with Performance
2-1: Not having clear objectives
2-2: Not having clear standards
2-3: Not arranging for feedback
2-4: Praising without knowing the facts
2-5: Not noticing good work
2-6: Not dealing with substandard work
2-7: Not allowing workers to make their own mistakes
2-8: Rewarding safe mediocrity
2-9: Using "only one can win" rewards
2-10: Expecting the annual performance review to improve performance
2-11: Not using appropriate competition with other workgroups as a motivator
Chapter 3 - Mistakes in Making Assignments
3-1: Giving assignments that aren't clear
3-2: Always delegating to the same few workers
3-3: Keeping the most challenging work for yourself
3-4: Delegating without controls
3-7: Giving poorly done work to someone else to complete
3-8: Letting a worker delegate back to you
3-9: Letting workers play "that's not my job"
Chapter 4 - Mistakes in Dealing with Your Customers
4-1: Ignoring customers
4-2: Substituting your judgment for thatof your customers
4-3: Not letting workers deal with their customers
4-4: Treating all of your customers as though they were alike
4-5: Not seeing your customers' changing needs
4-6: Refusing to work with your customers
4-7: Not educating your customers
4-8: Ignoring your suppliers
4-9: Not being a good customer
Chapter 5 - Mistakes in Providing Information
5-1: Not keeping your workgroup informed
5-2: Giving your workgroup incomplete information
5-3: Not keeping your workers aware of the "big picture"
5-4: Not keeping your boss informed
5-5: Getting caught up in the office rumor mill
5-6: Not inviting negative information from your boss
5-7: Not inviting negative information from your workgroup
5-8: Not passing information to other managers
Chapter 6 - Mistakes in Relationships with Other Workgroups
6-1: Letting your workgroup hold a grudge against another workgroup
6-2: Letting your workgroup take competition between workgroups too seriously
6-3: Letting your workgroup look down on other workgroups
6-4: Letting your workgroup blame problems on other workgroups
6-5: Letting other managers steal workers from you
6-6: Letting other workgroups take oer parts of your workgroup's mission
6-7: Accepting boring or no-win duties for your workgroup from other workgroups
Chapter 7 - Mistakes in Using Technology
7-1: Rejecting new technology
7-2: Getting technology for technology's sake
7-3: Letting someone else be responsible for picking new technology for your workgroup
7-4: Not letting workers use technology fully
7-5: Trying to solve performance problems with technology
7-6: Automating an existing process without improving it first
7-7: Letting technology make work more boring for the workgroup
Chapter 8 - Mistakes in Managing Teams
8-1: Trying to manage a team as a traditional supervisor
8-2: Not developing commitment to the team's mission
8-3: Dealing with team members solely as individuals
8-4: Not developing and living by team norms
8-5: Pushing the team to make decisions too quickly
8-6: Not supporting the team
8-7: Trying to prevent the team from surfacing and resolving conflict
Chapter 9 - Mistakes in Dealing with Your Boss
9-1: Not recognizing your boss' important issues
9-2: Not working to make your boss successful
9-3: Knuckling under to your boss
9-4: Not acting like a team player
9-5: Not taking on high-payoff but risky assignments
9-6: Taking on risky projects with little payoff
9-7: Telling your boss "that's not my job"
9-8: Not representing your workers to your boss
9-9: Not representing your boss to your workers
9-10: Going along with your boss' unethical behavior
Chapter 10 - Mistakes in Your Reactions as Part of the Organization
10-1: Not seeing the "big picture"
10-2: Not working with other managers
10-3: Badmouthing your boss, other managers, or the organization
10-4: Not carrying your share of the load
10-5: Not looking at problems in depth
10-6: Being too narrow in your approach to problems
10-7: Ignoring office politics
10-8: Not understanding and following the organization's culture
10-9: Letting the job get to you
Chapter 11 - Mistakes in Essential Management Skills
11-1: Not keeping your word
11-2: Not understanding that workers really are different from one another
11-3: Concentrating on mistakes, not learning
11-4: Judging workers, not their behavior
11-5: Not getting the facts first
11-6: Trying to manage by criticism and fear
11-7: Being defensive to criticism
11-8: Not building a trusting atmosphere
11-9: Not making the workgroup mission clear
11-10: Not training and developing workers
11-11: Not helping new workers develop self-management skills
11-12: Not networking with other managers
Index
