You don’t want to be “that manager”

You don't want to be "that manager" — you know, the one employees grumble about.

So in response, you work hard to be a well-liked manager. But this may cause you to over-rotate and adopt some unhealthy leadership behaviors.

Watch this Two-Minute Tip to identify the labels you fear others may place on you and understand how those fears may be impacting your management style.

• Read the video transcript

  Okay, deep question for you today.

  What are the words, the adjectives that you hope your employees will never use to describe you as a leader?

  And I ask this because often our fears end up driving our behavior more than anything, right? So what is it you're afraid of and how is that impacting your leadership? That's what we're talking about today.

  I am going to share three common fears that I see in managers and the corresponding impact because maybe you will resonate with one or more today or it will spark ideas on what other potential labels you're fearing.

  So the first one is, "I don't want to be labeled as a micromanager."

  This, for sure, is the most common one that I see. And what happens is, if I'm worried about being labeled as a micromanager, sometimes I step back too much and I provide too vague of direction, or I don't check in frequently enough, don't give feedback when needed and my employees start heading in directions that are not helpful, okay? So that's number one.

  Number two is a fear of being perceived as bossy or too controlling, kind of a, "My way or the highway," sort of attitude.

  And so the over rotation that I see here is being too democratic, needing to collect and honor everyone's opinions more than is actually physically possible. And all of a sudden, the team is stalled because you can't even make a decision now for fear of upsetting somebody. So that's number two.

  And then number three is a fear of being labeled as unsupportive, maybe kind of out of touch or not caring enough.

  And when managers fear this, the over rotation I see is starting to not hold employees accountable anymore, right? You become so supportive that you no longer hold them accountable to the standards of performance and execution that are necessary.

  Maybe you resonate with one or more of these terms today or maybe there's something else.

  What is the label that you do not want connected with your name, and how is that potentially impacting your leadership abilities, performance in a negative way?

  It's only when we really shine a light on these fears that we actually gain the ability to do something about them. We gain a little bit of control over them rather than allowing them to control us.