No one is immune to annoying other people. Leaders are no exception. According to Gallup, managers account for 70 percent of employee motivation. With that high of a level of influence on the team, it is critical to have the right people in leadership roles. Having any of these eight annoying behaviors makes it obvious that you are not fit for leadership and has a dramatic effect on employee motivation.
1. Leaders who blame outwardly are unfit for leadership.
It is never your fault. Unfit leaders blame the tool, the process, or the people. Not taking accountability when things go wrong is an annoying behavior because passing the blame to those beneath you is misguided and discouraging. You are not fit for leadership when you don’t hold yourself accountable and pass along the credit when things go right.
2. Leaders who show little to no passion for their people are annoying.
An annoying habit of unfit leaders is not showing passion for their people. Your lack of love for your team is demonstrated by not saying thank you. Additionally, you are too busy to have meaningful one-to-one conversations and this shows a lack of passion for your people. Furthermore, you act like you could care less if someone from your team left. You go so far as to joke about the low performers you are directly responsible for developing. Rather than developing someone, you would instead manage them out. By not being passionate for your team makes you not fit for leadership.
3. Leaders who focus purely on performance are unfit for leadership.
An annoying habit of some leaders is to focus solely on performance. Therefore, you are unable to be objective about how good people are. As a result, you may miss signs of harmful, toxic, or bullying behavior. When you focus entirely on achievement you could be praising people who are causing angst among the team. In doing so, you send a message to the rest of the team that they can get ahead no matter how bad of a person they are. Not evaluating the impact someone has on the rest of the team makes you not fit for leadership.
4. Leaders practicing the art of spinful conversations are annoying.
You don’t give straight answers. You provide information and promises but never deliver. Or worse, you are withholding information altogether. These are annoying behaviors of unfit leaders. By not providing the team with the information they need or not delivering what was agreed to results in mistrust, poor performance, and harms the organization. As a result, practicing the art of spinful conversations make you unfit to lead.
5. Micromanagers are insecure about their capabilities and don’t trust their team.
Micromanagement is an annoying thing to do and is a sign you are unfit for leadership. As a result of your lack of confidence, you don’t train and develop your team. Because your team lacks training, you don’t trust them to carry out their job. The lack of trust micromanagers foster keeps the team on edge, and in fear of doing the right things wrong. For this reason, if you micromanage you are unfit to lead.
6. Leaders with poor communication skills are annoying.
An inability to communicate makes you unfit to lead. It is annoying when a leader can’t communicate their expectations and ideas. The team won’t achieve the desired results if you can’t articulate your plan. Furthermore, if you can’t break it down easily and quickly, your team won’t make progress. If you are unskilled at the art of communication, you miss valuable signs that the team isn’t clear on the goals. As a result, you don’t ask follow-up questions to validate their understanding. Poor communication skills make you unfit for leadership.
7. Leaders who aren’t coachable aren’t fit for leadership.
You have no room to improve, and there is no question about your level of performance. You point to your credentials and past successes as a way to change the conversation. Even more so, you block any attempts your team makes to provide you with feedback because there is nothing to learn from people beneath you. And this annoying behavior makes you unfit for leadership.
8. Leaders who bully their team are unfit for leadership.
Talking down to your team or using a condescending tone is annoying. Disrespecting and shaming your team in a public setting is bullying behavior. It doesn’t have to be physical violence, but it is always annoying and a definite sign you are not fit for leadership. As a result of a bullying boss, the team will work hard to avoid you at all costs. It causes a breakdown in communication, lack of motivation, and loss in productivity.
These behaviors miss the point of leadership entirely. It only takes one of these behaviors to begin blazing trails of destruction throughout the organization. They make the team miserable and cause unnecessary attrition. What is worse is they are modeling the wrong behaviors for future leaders. And that is the primary reason these annoying behaviors demonstrate you unfit for leadership.
Last updated on September 24th, 2020 at 07:47 am
