We all know leading a team isn't easy, let alone heading up whole departments or an entire company. It's not uncommon to lose your way and start to get lost in the minor politics of your employees.
Being a leader isn’t just about spearheading the team to get the job done, it’s understanding individual employees needs and ways of working to get their maximum output.
A good leader motivates staff to complete their tasks on time and to the highest standards. However, a bad leader does quite the opposite.
Recent research suggests that 66 per cent of UK employees are planning to leave their company due to their boss’s poor leadership.
Unmet deadlines and poor quality work are just some of the problems caused by poor leadership and can escalate to employees leaving the company.
Some of the main reasons that poor leadership results in employees leaving a business include:
- Lack of Organisation
- Lack of Coordination and Teamwork
- Poor Team Morale
- Bias Leadership and Favouritism
Lack of Organisation
A team relies on its leader for clear direction and organisation. And this comes from the very top too. After all, that’s one of the main reasons that a team has a leader, so they can oversee the whole operation and keep the team on track to achieve their objectives.
You may have been in your role for years and worked your way up to being top of your game, but the skills you use to do your job and lead a team are very different.
As hard as it might be to admit, not everyone is born with the ability to be a great leader. As long as you recognise you are struggling you can do something about it before you lose control of your teams.
Without organisation, a team pulls in different directions and it can result in chaos. If everyone is working towards a different team goal, then very little is going to be achieved. This can also lead to frustrations from everybody involved - from employee level to the CEO. Deliverables aren’t being completed, which means that any kind of progress is impossible.
As a result of a lack of organisation, employees within the team can feel neglected and can also be left feeling apprehensive to ask for help, which isn’t an ideal working culture for your team. This can happen to employees on all levels of your business, which could make them lose faith in the company altogether.
These frustrations and working environment issues could fuel an employee’s decision to look elsewhere. After all, nobody wants to go to work not feeling 100 percent committed and unable to ask for help to complete their job.
Directing your team is not only about putting the right managers and employees in place to get the job done but seeing the growth of your workforce too. And you can’t expect that if you’re disorganised. They are the driving force of your business’ success and you’ll be able to spot the stronger members of the team who could progress into more senior roles further down their careers.
Lack of Coordination and Teamwork
A leader must be able to communicate well. After all, if the communication breaks down from the very top level, it’s going to be broken right through the team, isn’t it?
However, will a CEO always have the time to effectively communicate with the bottom tier of their staff? 39 percent of employees agree that a good leader should be a good communicator and listener.
It’s easy to get lost in client work and forget about the people who are making the cogs of the business churn. It’s really important to take time out for your senior staff as their happiness will filter down to the lower level teams.
Communication is one of the main pillars of success. And coordination and teamwork both rely on communication being completely transparent throughout the whole team. If a leader doesn’t communicate properly, the rest of the team then doesn’t know what’s required and expected of them. So there’s no way that they can work knowing they’re doing the right thing.
This isn’t an ideal situation for the business. Without a clear objective of what to work on, employees are more prone to making mistakes. Which not only could land them in bother but could have a knock-on effect throughout the whole business.
Plus, it looks like those at the top are only looking out for themselves and not bothered about their workforce - which is the worst trait to have as a leader. You should be putting the team first and sharing responsibility. If a leader is pinning the responsibility of failure all on one employee or a team of employees, no wonder they want to get out the door.
A leader needs to form strong bonds with senior staff and managers. They’re the stepping stones who relay your messages to the wider team, so you need to make sure to communicate effectively with these staff members. That way, the main brand values are filtered right down throughout the employee framework from the very top.
Poor Team Morale
Like a captain on a sports field, the leader sets the tone. And it’s no different in a business environment. It’s up to the top-level management to inspire the whole team. You’re the one your employees look up to and are in the position many of them aspire to get to. So, if you’re being overly negative, it’s bound to affect morale throughout.
The rest of the team could easily adopt the mindset of, “it’s ok to idle because even the top boss does” - which is something that you need to avoid. The negativity will soon trickle through the team and it could quickly become miserable. People may start dreading coming to work or fearing to make mistakes.
It’s no secret that a happy team is a successful team. Whereas, an unhappy team is quite the opposite. Tensions are high and it’s not a nice environment for anybody to find themselves in. A successful leader pushes their staff and boosts their morale to get the best out of them - they shouldn’t destroy it and leave their team feeling overwhelmed.
An employee will work better when they’re happy, knowing their boss has their back in whatever they do, especially a top-level manager.
Bias Leadership and Favouritism
A good leader treats all of their team as equals and values each of their opinions. However, in some cases, people get unfairly treated and aren’t taken as seriously as other employees, often without a clear reason as to why.
A bias leader is a bad leader. Favouritism is a real problem in the workplace and can leave employees feeling worthless to the company.
Their ideas aren’t taken seriously, they’re treated harsher than other employees and are trusted a lot less too. That’s a horrible position to be in as an employee, so it’s not surprising that it forces them to look elsewhere.
As a top level leader you probably manage multiple senior managers, so make sure no matter what position they are in, everyone is treated fairly. Try to balance your time equally between everyone and ensure you have regular scheduled meetings so you don’t fall behind on catching up with important members of your team.
You never want to get into a position where your senior staff are not getting their voices heard. They are the people on the front lines of the business so dismissing their ideas could cost you in the long run.
Improve Your Leadership With Executive Headhunters
Poor leadership can affect your organisation and result in the loss of good employees. The last thing you want is members of your senior team to start leaving because of your management style. You want to create an environment in which people are attracted to come and work for you rather than leave you.
But how can you ensure that your leadership style is favourable? Well, that’s where Executive Headhunters can help as we provide a suite of Executive Leadership services.
We offer one-to-one Executive Coaching whereby our highly experienced coaches will work directly with individuals to identify specific needs, facilitate conversations and collaboratively develop action plans.
Our Executive Onboarding service helps new senior recruits integrate with your business as soon as possible. Given the critical nature of recruiting at executive level, this helps to ensure they can perform as quickly and effectively as possible from day one.
We also offer a range of Leadership and Consultancy services, whereby we provide detailed, valuable assistance in the development of your executives’ leadership skills. This is essential for the operation of any successful business, and is aimed at enhancing your organisation, helping you to understand how best to grow and structure your business as well as identifying any leadership skills gaps.
If you’re interested in any of these services, please don’t hesitate to contact us.
