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How to keep your employees from succeeding.
Everyone who manages a team wants to help their employees innovate and think outside of the lines. Some of the best ideas and the most successful strategies come from groups of people who are able to work together to be creative and the best managers help foster that quality. The sad truth is that while most managers strive for this type of environment, many of them aren't able to provide an atmosphere that nutures that. In fact, if you have worked for more than one or two companies during the course of your career, then you know what I mean.
When you are looking for a job in management or simply trying to help your team perform to their potential, it's important to know the mistakes that can stop creativity and innovation in their tracks. You may not even be aware of ways that management can stifle innovation without even meaning to.
Here are 5 ways to Stifle Innovation and Creativity:
- Not delegating effectively - It's important to assign jobs to the right employees. While it's important to continue to challenge your team on both a group and individual level, giving a job to a person who is least suited for it will give you less than stellar results. One mistake that many managers make is not matching the job with the skill of the employee.
- Micro-managing - Employees need some freedom to accomplish tasks in their own way. If you spend a large part of your day looking over their shoulder and directing their every move, it will become clear that independent thought isn't appreciated or valued. As this continues, your entire team will stop trying to come up with new ideas and the creative energy will dry up.
- Discourage diversity - Sometimes team managers will select employees who all share similar values, thought processes and ideas. While it's great to have a team that all gets along well, they aren't being challenged and what's more, they aren't challenging each other. When a team is made up of people with many different outlooks, they may bump heads from time to time, but you can bet that they will bring out the best in each other and come up with some of the most innovative ideas.
- Don't offer constructive feedback - This one is a big mistake that many managers make and it can really put a damper on creativity. Being truly creative means taking a risk. Sometimes, those risks pay off and other times they fail. So, to really stifle innovation, be sure to criticize your employees and when they fail, make sure that you set the example that risk taking just isn't tolerated in your department.
- Encourage in-fighting - When management doesn't do anything about office bullying, gossiping and the like, the creative energy of the team is greatly decreased. When a team is busy fighting itself, they don't have the energy to create anything. If you really want to keep your team from being creative, be sure to discourage working together and promote rivalry.
Of course, you don't really want to discourage your team's creativity. Although it might work in the short term, eventually the poor morale of your team will prevent you from achieving your goals. Remember, when the team fails, the leader goes down right along with them. Don't let this happen to you. Instead, armed with this knowledge, you can look for ways to make your employees more productive, energetic and creative.
What other things do you think managers that stifles creativity? I would love to hear your thoughts in the comments.
By Melissa Kennedy- Melissa is a 9 year blog veteran and a freelance writer for SalesHeadsBlog, along with helping others find the job of their dreams, she enjoys computer geekery, raising a teenager, supporting her local library, writing about herself in the third person and working on her next novel.
By Melissa Kennedy- Melissa is a 9 year blog veteran and a freelance writer for SalesHeadsBlog, along with helping others find the job of their dreams, she enjoys computer geekery, raising a teenager, supporting her local library, writing about herself in the third person and working on her next novel.
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