 Learn the common mistakes managers make that kill team trust, respect and appreciation of the manager so that you can avoid making them. These are common mistakes of new managers. I've seen plenty of more experienced managers still making these typical mistakes many years into their management careers. Each of these eight typical mistakes makes the transition to manager a lot harder and more painful for you and your team. Any manager struggling to gain the respect of their team, struggling with team motivation and performance will be making at least one of these common mistakes. Each of these common mistakes managers make are fundamental mistakes, not minor mistakes. Making any of them has a big negative impact on team performance. The eight common manager mistakes I'm covering are, firstly not getting to know your team well enough, secondly failing to communicate expectations clearly, third thinking team rules don't apply to you, fourth managing with a one size fits all approach and fifth failing to truly listen to the team, sixth using a I know best approach and then seventh avoiding conflict and finally eighth not investing in yourself. For each of these mistakes I explain the impact on the team and performance and what steps you should take to avoid making these eight common management mistakes. My name is Jess Coles and if you're new here Enhance.Training shares people management expertise, resources and courses teaching you how to build higher performing teams. I've included links to additional videos and resources in the description below as well as the video timestamps so do take a look at these. If you liked this video please give it a thumbs up and subscribe. The first of common mistakes managers make is not getting to know your team well enough. As a manager your team are the tools through which you will create increasing amounts of value for the company you work for. The better you get to know them the more likely you will maximise the value or enabling them to create, increase the output they deliver and build their motivation and enjoyment of being at work. A big mistake far too many managers make is not getting to know their team members well enough. In time with each team member work alongside them, ask them for their opinions, advice, information, decisions and solutions. Ask them questions about what they like and don't, inside of work and outside. Get to know their personalities. I look to learn about these seven areas as a minimum for any team I manage. Firstly the extent and level of their skills. Secondly the judgement and decision making they have. Third their character and values. Fourth what energy levels they have. Fifth their ambitions and dreams. Sixth how they react in different situations and then seventh their desire and ability to learn. Don't make the common manager mistake of not really getting to know your team. By putting in the effort to learn about each team member you will gain a huge amount of appreciation and respect. You know who doesn't like a person who is generally interested in them. You'll also learn a lot about their capabilities and preferences. You'll know what you can delegate, how much support you'll need to provide in a wide range of situations. Knowing them will enable you to encourage them to deliver as much as possible while ensuring they still enjoy being at work. Great managers play chess. Average managers play checkers. Don't make the mistake of only aiming to play checkers. Get to know your team members at as a deeper level as practical. The second of the typical mistakes managers make is failing to communicate expectations clearly. You create expectations with everything you say and do. Every action you take, every decision you make, communicates your expectations on some level to the team. One of the common mistakes of new managers is thinking that telling the team the expectations is enough. It is not. Work to create consistency of messaging and alignment of what you say and what you do. The clearer the expectations, the less confusion, the more psychological safety you create and the higher the team performance. A classic mistake of creating confusion. The manager sets the team goals which are ambitious and stretching through targets on the wall and PowerPoint presentations. Then the manager retreats into their office. The team doesn't really know what the manager is working on or how it helps them. If they might be thinking, does the manager care about these goals? Don't make this type of management mistake. To reinforce the goals, the manager should be visibly working to help each team member overcome obstacles, working to get the right resources in place at the right time, working to protect the team and keep the focus on the most important areas and activities. Spend time thinking about all the different ways that you might communicate expectations to the team. Try to keep what you say and what you do aligned as much as possible. The third of the common mistakes managers make is thinking that team rules don't apply to you. Many managers don't realise that they are in the spotlight or on a stage in effect. Don't make this mistake. Every team member is paying a lot of attention to what you do, the decisions you make, the actions you take and the behaviours you display. Managers make the mistake of setting the rules for the team and assuming they don't need to follow those rules. By not following your rules, you are storing up a lot of problems for yourself. Your team will not be impressed at what might be perceived as a petty display of power or in a way to give yourself an ego boost. Don't make this management mistake. It is certain to damage the trust and respect the team have for you. If you want the team to follow the rules that you have set for them, you must visibly demonstrate that you are following the rules too. A management position is a privileged position. Use the power you have carefully and in service of helping the team. Do not make the mistake of using management power directly for your personal gain. The fourth of the common mistakes managers make is managing with a one size fits all approach. Getting the wrong levels of support and direction for any staff member is going to annoy them and be a disaster for team performance. Typical mistakes include micromanaging high performers and being too hands off with those that are desperate for help. Another example of this mistake is getting the wrong balance of delegating tasks and problems to a given team member. A great manager flexes their approach a lot to the situation and the person they are managing. For junior team members, they might provide a lot of clear direction, delegate more tasks and proactively offer a lot of support during the task. For the experienced or high performers, they might agree clear goals but not dictate the steps to achieve them, delegate more problems and be available to help if asked. Do not make the mistake of using a one size fits all approach to management. Always flex your management style and your communication style to the situation and the person that you are faced with. The fifth of the typical mistakes managers make is failing to truly listen to the team. Your typical mistakes made by managers include firstly ignoring feedback and advice from team members. Second, not asking for feedback, opinions and solutions. Third, jumping to conclusions without understanding the situation well enough. Fourth, not placing enough value on the solutions the team offers. The team members are experts in their particular area of responsibility. Team members are undertaking the activities, seeing and experiencing the problems and they're likely to have some really good practical and implementable solutions. Don't make the mistake of assuming that you know better than them. If you make the mistake of not asking questions and listening to what you're being told, how are you going to discover what is really happening? Be curious, be inquisitive and ask your team a lot of questions. They will be delighted to explain what they think. The more you ask, the more help you will get and the more help you'll be able to provide. Listening and acting on what you learn is a great way to improve teams' performance significantly. The sixth of the common mistakes managers make is using a I Know Best approach. Too many managers make the mistake of trying to demonstrate or prove their worth by using a I Know Best approach. You make this mistake and you add a huge amount of unnecessary pressure to yourself. The very nature of a manager's role is to have many fingers in different pies to be more of a generalist than a specialist. You need to have a good overview of what is happening. All of these requirements often prevent the manager knowing best. A good manager is very good at getting others to help create good solutions. Be good at identifying the best options and then work hard to make sure the solution is implemented. A manager doesn't have to come up with any ideas and can still do an incredibly valuable job. Don't make the mistake of letting your insecurities get in the way of getting your team to create amazing solutions. Seek and ask for ideas, opinions and solutions from your team. Challenge, ask questions and look for holes in the solutions before implementing them. Check the alignment of solution to the wider goals. These are all vital steps that add a lot of value and will increase team performance. Asking team members to help is a great way of demonstrating you value their input and then. The seventh of the common mistakes managers make is avoiding conflict. There will always be conflict in any organisation. The fight to secure limited resources, the different goals of each department and everyone's different backgrounds and life experiences create conflict. A common mistake managers make is not managing these differences carefully, allowing destructive conflict to happen. On top of that, you'll have difficult, lazy, disruptive and underperforming employees make the mistake of ignoring these problems and your team performance is only going to drop. In my experience, the quicker you tackle conflicts, the easier it is to resolve them and get a positive result. Conflict builds on momentum all of their own. The more people that get sucked into a conflict, the more time and energy it takes to sort that conflict out. Don't make the mistake of avoiding conflict. As soon as you see conflicts, find out the cause of those conflicts and do your best to manage and resolve the conflicts as quickly as possible. The eighth of the typical mistakes managers make is not investing in yourself. If you're a new manager, you are effectively starting a new career which requires a different set of skills from your previous roles, combined with different knowledge and a different approach. There is a lot to learn. Don't make the mistake of being passive about learning or expecting to be spoon-fed. Learning by trial and error and watching others is a common way to learn. I know from personal experience that this is a slow and painful and it's very hard to be better than okay. Learning from your manager is great if they have good skills, a successful approach and they make the time and have the interest to teach and coach you. Suck up as much knowledge as you can from them if you're in this situation. 82% of UK managers surveyed by the economist said that they had no proper management skills for training. Chances are you're not going to get much formal training from your company. What are you going to do to improve your management skills? Knowing the best ways to tackle difficult employees, underperformers, conflict between team members, et cetera, makes a huge difference to the outcome and your stress levels. Management is a skill that you do need to practice. Practicing the skills in the right way is super important if you want to become a good manager. I am very conscious that enhanced doc training provides management training and so I will obviously say invest in your own development. I was lucky that I had some great managers to learn from but I also bought and read a lot of books on management skills and approaches. I proactively invested in my own development. Don't make the mistake of not doing this. And there is a lot of information on the internet that will get you started. There are books, courses, mentors and coaches to teach you the depth that you'll need which is very hard to find on the internet. If you want to be good at management, invest in yourself and learn how to approach the huge range of situations you'll face and then practice, practice, practice. So in summary, then transition to manager is tough. You're starting a completely new career, often with little help from the company in which you work. Avoid the eight common mistakes managers make that we've discussed today and you'll be giving yourself a very valuable head start in your new career. For those that have been managing for a while, take a moment to think about the eight typical mistakes managers make. Ask yourself honestly, which ones are you still guilty of making? Take the time to think about our suggestions of how to change what you do for the better. You will see the difference quickly. To recap, the eight common mistakes managers make are firstly, not getting to know your team well enough. Secondly, failing to communicate expectations clearly. Third, thinking team rules don't apply to you. Fourth, managing with a one-size-fits-all approach. Fifth, failing to truly listen to the team. Sixth, using a I Know Best approach. And then seventh, avoiding conflict and then eighth, not investing in yourself. If you have any questions on the eight common mistakes managers make that kill team performance and morale, please leave them in the comment section below and I'll get back to you. Thanks very much for watching and I look forward to speaking to you again soon.