1Don't Be a Friend

Since you are now in a leadership role, it is an easy trap to fall into to try to make everyone like you.

This is a mistake. You can (and should) be friendly toward your staff, but you shouldn’t be friends.

It will be very difficult (if not impossible) for you to treat both your friends and your non-friends equally and fairly.

You will also have to give performance evaluations and handle disciplinary actions for everyone who reports to you. This will be extremely difficult with people who are your friends.

2Don’t Flaunt Your Power

Just because you are now the boss doesn’t mean you have to go out of your way to remind people. If you feel like you have to flaunt your authority every day just to prove you’re in charge, you won’t have any real power. Instead of being the person in charge, you will be thought of as the crazy guy who just likes to boss people around.

3Don’t Assume Everyone Is Like You

Most people start out with the assumption that whatever it is that motivates them, also motivates everyone else. However, this will not work. People are different. Everyone learns new things in different ways and everyone is motivated differently.

Some people will do their best work when they are challenged, but others have to feel comfortable with their work before they are at their peak. Some people are better when they receive public praise for their efforts, but others will not want any kind of public recognition at all. In order to be the most effective leader, find out what motivates each person and find a way to give it to them.

4Don’t Manage in Public

Another common error by many new leaders is to handle problems in public. They may believe that people don’t want their co-workers to know when they make an error, so they won’t make them. This isn’t true.

Mistakes are going to happen no matter how hard people try not to make them. If people fear public humiliation for admitting to a mistake, your staff will stop communicating with you. You may not find out about a small problem until it becomes a much bigger problem. It will also stop other people from communicating with you because of the same fear.

5Don't Manage by Email

Email was a wonderful invention. It allowed everyone to get a lot more work done in a short amount of time and it made it easy to provide information to a lot of different people at once.

Because it is so easy to use, many managers begin to use it in place of face to face communication.

The problem is that communicating by email doesn’t allow for your tone of voice to be conveyed. It will also not allow you to see the face of the people receiving the message to see if they understand it or if they are confused.

The exact same email message can mean wildly different things to two people depending upon their frame of mind when they read it.

Of course, everyone knows about the problem of sending emails when you are angry or frustrated. It is too easy to write a quick email and send it before you fully think through the possible consequences.

These are some specific situations where you should definitely avoid using email:

• Coaching and teaching
• Handling conflict
• Anything that is likely to incite emotion

Before you write an email, make sure it is the most appropriate method to use based upon what you have to say.

6Don’t Focus Too Much on the Problem People

The final mistake that many new bosses make is spending too much time on problem employees. There are two reasons this will be a problem for you.

The first reason is that they may actually like the attention they get. Spending too much time on them may reinforce the fact that it’s the best way to continue to get attention from you.

The second reason is that is you spend too much time on the problem people, it will prevent you from spending time with your staff who is performing well.

When you can spend more time on your staff that is performing well, it will serve as positive motivation to help them to develop even further. Those are the people who will give you the best ideas for the future too.

What are some of the biggest mistakes you have seen by new bosses?

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