7 Bad Manager Behaviors to Be Wary of

7 Bad Manager Behaviors to Be Wary of Managing a team of recruiters is a tough gig, especially when youre expected to make placements yourself. Youve  no doubt done really well to get you to the point of having your own team but managing people is a completely different ball game.  You cant just worry about yourself and your own performance anymore; youre now responsible for the  well-being and profitability  of others, too. Finding a management method that works for you takes time; no one gets it right immediately. Striking the correct balance  of  friendliness, seniority, delegation, praise and deserved discipline is extremely difficult. Whether you are a first time manager or a decorated  boss with years of experience, its important to continually check your habits. Failing to nurture potential and encourage success in the right way  will eventually result in higher employee turnover, dips in performance, unsatisfied team members and low morale.  In one way or another their consequences are costly and avoidable. How? By checking your leadership style against  these red flag bad manager behaviors: 1. Hypocrisy Watching someone delegate task after task, without practicing what they preach is extremely frustrating. Great managers lead by example and set the bar high. 2. Crushing comparisons Continually making comparisons between the work of some employees vs others is really patronizing and belittling.  Making examples out of people doing really well can be inspirational, but can also have negative effects if people start to feel theyre never going to be as good as you want them to be. 3. Favoritism Favoring certain people in the team might not be a conscious decision you make, but can happen without you realizing. Who do you consistently ask for extra assistance? Who do you spend the most time with? Who do you praise the most? Who do you feel has the most potential? If the same person keeps springing to mind, the other people in your team are probably noticing too. Each person will require a different level of management and support, but employees in the same team should feel  as valued as each other. 3.  Insufficient feedback Leaving people to their own devices encourages independence and the use of initiative, however, failing to provide proper constructive criticism or praise can leave employees feeling unsure as to how they are performing. Your employees shouldnt be kept guessing as to whether they are doing a good job or not. 4.  Being too friendly Trying to be too cool with your employees can make  them  feel they dont have a proper figure of authority to look up to.  If you try to be too friendly and connect with them on a super personal level, they might feel uncomfortable raising serious issues with you about their role, your actions or other serious issues concerning colleagues. There is a balance to be struck between being friendly and being too friendly. 5. Being a  dictator Further on from my previous point, its important not to be too stern, bossy and unapproachable. Yes, you are more senior than your team members, however, a team is supposed to work together and gel as one unit. If you only ever talk about work, targets, and performances, your colleagues wont feel they connect with you as a person. Theres no exact science about how to strike the perfect friend/manager balance, but its important to remain professional and open. 6.  Lack of comms  lines Great managers should advertise an  open door policy, where employees know they will have an avenue of speaking with you and raising any concerns. Setting up weekly meetings can be extremely helpful in making sure that workloads dont get in the way of frequent feedback sessions. By holding regular one-to-one, youll be able to spot a dissatisfied employee quicker and address the case before its too late. 7.  KPI inflexibility Having KPIs is great, especially in recruitment where your success is only as good as your output. However, all recruiters will have a different style of working, different clients and different strengths and weaknesses, so its important to create individual KPIs for different individuals. All employees cant be  painted with the same brush.