As a leader in a business setting, you should realize that people will expect you to be a role model and that all eyes are on you. Hence, it’s important to watch how you act in the workplace – including how you communicate. What are certain things leaders should avoid saying to their team? Here’s a list.
“This client sucks.” All of us have the experience of being pressured by deadlines set by our clients, and there is no excuse to whine about it, especially in front of our team. Showing that we are feeling the pressure will only demoralise our team and as leaders we should ensure them to focus and provide the best service to all of clients.
“I am the boss here.” Oh wow, yes boss, how marvellous! But hey, here’s news for each of us: no one wants to work in an environment where they are not treated with respect. And if we expect our team to do a good job by acting like a boss and putting fear into their day-to-day activities, we are fooling ourselves because that is not going to happen. Even though we are the ones that making the final important decisions, as leaders we must respect our team members and involve them in every process leading to those decisions. Remember, they are our work partners, not minions and it’s our job to ensure a good teamwork out of our division.
“I am too busy” You should never too busy for anything, especially to assist your team because that’s your job. Never think that you are “too important” to any job, instead schedule your time to make space to spend more time with your team to work together, identify their problems and understand them more.
“Any new gossip?” Leaders should build a good working culture within their team and encouraging gossip will definitely not going to help that cause. YES, so it’s your job to maintain that gossip-free working environment.
“God, are you really that stupid?” Getting frustrated on your team members’ performance is common but keep on ridiculing them will only make things worse and shows how unprofessional you are on handling them.
“You are the only person with problems here.” While ridiculing the whole time for bad performance is bad enough, singled out one person for it is even worse. Even if it’s true that one particular person is ruining the team’s productivity, try to talk the person to identify him/her problems and finding the solution together.
“I don’t want to know” Leaders should know everything within their work scopes and playing ignorant is unacceptable. If you show this attitude towards your team, they will have the same attitude towards their task too and nothing will ever get completed. One of a leader’s job is to make the team to be proud of their job and this attitude will be counter-productive to that cause.
“Don’t argue with me!” As a leader, we should not forbid our team members to argue with our opinion, because we can be wrong. We should accommodate all ideas to build a good business.
“This is the only way to do it.” Just because we used the same way to do things for years, doesn’t mean that it’s the best and only way to get results. It’s the best if you are open to new ways suggested by your team members. Openness will trigger creativity and innovation that will only do good for your business.
“Just let me do this—and this—and that!” Remember, we cannot do everything ourselves. One of the qualities of a good leader is the ability to delegate the right tasks to the right team members. Give them an opportunity and trust to learn dealing with problems and in the end it will help them to succeed in the future.
“You performance is, well…uhm, OK” Don’t hesitate to give praise your team members if they deserved it. If they worked hard and achieved a great result from it, give the credit they deserved will motivate them to do better and help to realize all the good potentials they have in them. Further, giving them constructive input, as an addition to the praise will also help them to perform even better at their jobs.
“It’s just a small client.” Setting a bad example to your team by differentiate clients by their size is a fatal mistake, because it will justify them to provide poor quality work to lesser clients. No matter the size, we should ensure the best quality of works to all clients, otherwise it will badly hurt your company’s credibility.
