What are the common mistakes all new inexperienced managers make?

The manager must take into account :1) harmony in the team .2) self-control .3 ) Flexibility4) communication skills and influence on the team.5) motivate team

1) No proper planning

2) No training to employees 

3) No calculated budget

4) lack of supervision and follow up

5) lack of adequate staff

6) entire plan for development of the organization not considered  

 

Well beginners or new managers are bound to make mistakes like any other person and create opportunities for learning for self and others. Mistakes are not source for discouragement as long as it becomes an opportunity for learning and making productive contribution.

People who are open to learning and self development irrespective of their positions attained will create opportunities for learning by making mistakes and most humbly learning from others.

I would not mention it as Change Management rather immediate changes made by a new inexperienced manager without understanding the existing procedures followed and not reasoning out to see why these procedures are practiced at present.  By not understanding the repercussion, and the effects of operational function.  A new inexperienced manager will not know what to do in case of crisis and decisions made at that stage may lead to more problems.  Changes made without consulting his team members and their subordinates.  Some more mistakes could be decisions made without consulting his superiors.  

By not understanding what the company is expected out of his role.  

By not understanding properly the company policies, procedure and vision of the company.

By not interacting with all the members of the Management team.

By not understanding the existing internal issues the company may be facing. 

 

 

There are a lot possible mistakes, but I think the biggest is the arrogance with which mostly the managers try to lead.

Failure to respect, understand and adopt the new organizational environment, culture and internal policies, systems, processes & procedures and trying to impose/enforce upon or change the same as per their own concepts.

New managers or any new employee have to change and adopt to the new organization rather than expecting the organization to change to suit their personal traits.

Performance Management

1. Being slow to deal with performance issues - Smoke becomes fire. If you take note of performance issues early you can give gentle corrective feedback. If you're too slow to notice you have to give stronger feedback, and the performance issues may be harder to reverse.
2. Not documenting poor performance - Documenting poor performance via email helps employees understand the gravity of the situation ("This email summarizes the discussion we just had") and it is also helpful to have on hand if it comes time to terminate the employee.
3. Not documenting good performance - Documenting good performance via email, to the employee alone or to a wider audience, is a great way to recognize their contributions to the team and company. It's also a good habit to regularly document good performance of team members for your own purposes, so you can remember what you want to praise them for at annual review time.

Career Development

1. Not getting to know your employees - It's great to know the names of all your employees' kids. It's even better to know the type of work each employee most likes to do, their particular pain points within the team or company, what their career objectives are (depth, breadth, management), or why they might be thinking about taking a different job or moving to a different company. You need to develop a rapport and level of trust with each employee before they'll start to share these things with you.
2. Not paying attention to your high-performing employees - If you're very satisfied with how an employee is performing you need to turn the tables and invest in making them more satisfied with their job. Find ways for them to do more of what makes them happy and less of what doesn't.
3. Not investing in developing your employees - Every employee needs to be developed, either to support the career development (and retention) of strong performers or to improve the performance of weaker employees. Every year you should be trying to raise the level of performance of every employee.

Leadership

1. Thinking too small - A successful leader is going to create growth and opportunity for their team. A leader who thinks small is unlikely to do either. Instead of planning how to grow your business100%, plan how to grow it10x or100x.
2. Not explicitly allocating resources - Explicitly managing resources means prioritizing projects, specifying how many (or which) resources will work on each, and in what order. Highly effective teams may be able to self-organize extremely well. New managers give less effective teams too much freedom to self-organize, leading to sub-optimal resource allocation.
3. Poor delivery of unpopular decisions - The difference in how employees receive unpopular decisions often depends on how those decisions are delivered. The more important, or more unpopular, the decision, the greater the need to manage its delivery. In my experience, the best way to deliver unpopular decisions is at a team meeting where you have ample time to give the reasoning behind the decision and take Q&A. Good managers explain why the decision is made. Bad managers say, "Because the boss said so."
4. Being slow to resolve team pain points - New managers don't pay attention to or understand their team's pain points. Good managers are always tracking their team's pain points, devising strategies to reduce or resolve them, and then moving on to the next pain point.

Recruiting

1. Not investing in sourcing - Good managers source candidates themselves through their personal networks and take ownership over sourcing in other ways, treating any candidates that the recruiting department sends their way as gravy. Inexperienced managers are satisfied with whatever recruiting sends them.
2. Lazy recruiting - Good managers act quickly on any recruiting activity. They review resumes as soon as they come in, make time in their schedules for phone screens, sell their positions to candidates, make quick hiring decisions, and are aggressive in getting from offer to acceptance. New managers act more slowly. They trust the recruiting department to brief candidates on the position and handle other candidate communications. Lazy recruiting loses candidates to other companies or internal teams.
3. Reactive sourcing and recruiting - Bad managers wait until they have an approved position and a job description up on the company's website. Good managers are always sourcing and recruiting, and may be chatting up a prospective candidate today about a position they may not have open for a year or more.

Hiring

1. Not being clear on the requirements of the role - Inexperienced managers don't spend time thinking about exactly what they need from a new hire. They hire generic candidates with generic skills. Good managers have a more narrow profile in mind, which helps them write stronger job descriptions and generate more qualified candidates.
2. Lowering the bar - Inexperienced managers have low standards, or lower their standards, in an effort to make a hire. Good managers know that they're much better off keeping a high bar and waiting for the right candidate.

Organizational Development

1. Letting dotted lines proliferate - It sucks to have two bosses. Good managers seek to have clear lines of authority and prevent their employees from getting caught in the middle between competing bosses. Inexperienced managers let other managers carve out chunks of their resources.
2. Letting the team get swamped - Inexperienced managers keep piling more and more work on the team. Experienced managers either grow the team size to handle the increased load, or deflect the increased work. It takes an experienced manager who's earned the trust of leadership to push back effectively, or to effectively justify why the team needs more headcount.
3. Being reactive - Inexperienced managers need their bosses to tell them when their team is over or under-resourced or unbalanced. The team might have too few or too many resources, or it might be heavy or light on a certain role (e.g. QA:SDE ratio) given the other resources on the team. Experienced managers are anticipating how the needs of the team are going to change over time and then working proactively working to adapt their org's size and structure.

Visibility

1. Taking the credit - New managers let themselves take credit for their team's work. Good managers attempt to redirect kudos and credit onto their team, or ideally, individual team members.
2. Forwarding the blame - New managers pin the blame on team members. "Joe was out of the office and wasn't able to finish this in time." Good managers put the blame on themselves and understand that any failing within the team is a failing of the leader.

The majority of new manager mistakes are the fault of the company. If an employee exceeds at the duties it does not mean he will be a good manager. Most companies do not provide enough training in team interaction and the philosophy of management. This results in the issues listed by others. You need to remember that management is a new department and requires training.

 

Being a leader isn't easy, and not every decision you make is going to be a good one. But you can be a more effective leader if you avoid the most common mistakes that bosses make. The good news is that, with just a little bit of work and attention, these mistakes can be avoided and your company can thrive as a result. So avoid these9 deadly leadership mistakes at all cost.

1. Failing to delegate

The key to leadership success is to learn to effectively delegate both the responsibility for completing assignments and the authority required to get things done. Whenever you prepare to take on a new task or assignment, make a point to ask yourself whether one of your employees can do it instead.

2. Not setting goals

Not only do goals give employees direction and purpose, but they ensure that your employees are working towards the overall goals of the organization. Setting goals with employees is a key job of any leader. Ultimately, the goals that you and your employees agree to should support the goals of your organization.

3. Looking for quick fixes

No matter how difficult the problem, there is always a quick solution. The trouble is that in our zeal to fix things quickly and move on to the next fire to be fought, we often overlook the lasting solution that may take longer to develop. You want to make a decision and move on, but don't be too hasty.

4. Communicating poorly--or not at all

It can be difficult for busy bosses to keep employees up to date on the latest developments. And with the speed that information now travels, employees may learn what's going on in the organization before the boss does.  Regardless, make every effort to get employees the information they need to do their jobs quickly and efficiently.

5. Failing to learn

Every employee, no matter how talented or meticulous, makes mistakes.  What separates good employees from not-so-good employees is their ability to learn from those mistakes.  The best leaders create an environment in which employees aren't afraid to take prudent risks, even if it means occasional failure, because that's how employees learn.

6. Resisting change

If you think you can keep things from changing in your business, you are mistaken. Instead of resisting change, or reacting to it after the fact, anticipate the changes that are coming and make plans to address them before they arrive.

7. Not making time for employees

Above all, leadership is a people job. When an employee needs to talk with you--whatever the reason--put your work aside, turn off the phone, and focus on that employee. If you're not available at that moment, make an appointment to meet with the employee as soon as possible.

8. Missing chances to make work fun

Without a doubt, being a boss is serious business. Despite the gravity of these responsibilities, the best leaders make their organizations fun places to be. Your people spend about one-third of their lives at work.  Make it a pleasant place for them.

9. Failing to praise and reward

There are many things that leaders can do to recognize employees that cost little or no money, are easy to implement, and take only a few minutes to accomplish.  When you take the time to recognize employees’ achievements, the result is improved morale, performance, and loyalty.

1. They want to be liked more than respected 

Of course, everyone wants to be liked. But since you’re the leader of the team you also need to be able to make unpopular decisions and to deliver them to your team. The fear that you won’t be liked will make it less likely for you to do so. That’s why most inexperienced managers either don’t know how to deliver the hard news to their team, or don’t make the hard decisions in the first place, afraid of how their team might perceive them. 

2. They micromanage 

As a manager, it’s easy to get drawn into perfectionism. You don’t want anything to go wrong. You want to make sure everything is perfect, because it will be a reflection on you if your team is any less than perfect. 

Chances are, if a manager is constantly bombarding team members with emails or dropping by to see how the work is going, he is suffocating his team members. Micromanaging disempowers team members, and even affects their confidence and performance, as it shows that you don’t trust them. While you should always expect the best work from your team, micromanaging is not the best way to achieve that. 

3. They don’t delegate 

delegating works both ways: you’re taking some tasks off your plate just as much as you are empowering team members and showing them that you trust them. Not only does delegating give you time to focus on your most important tasks, but it also gives your team members the opportunity to grow, as it allows them to gain new experience and develop their skills. It’s a win-win situation! 

4. They don’t invest in employee development

Whether it’s improving poor performers or assisting strong performers with career development, employee development is vital to employee satisfaction – and to the well-being of your business. Your business can’t grow if its people are stagnating. Evaluate what skills you need on your team, then see how you can enable the right team members to get those skills. 

5. They don’t read body language

The ability to read body language is a vital part of emotional intelegance. Good managers are able to understand how a team member is feeling and what they may be thinking, even when things are not spelled out. Of course, people will probably always hide some things from their managers. Developing this skill early can help managers prevent things like employee dissatisfaction that seems to come out of nowhere and avoid potential conflicts before they escalate.

6. They don’t adjust their management style 

Good managers know when they can be more hands-off and when they need to harden their grip. Different team members need different management styles, and your ability to provide that depends on how well you can adapt your style to different personalities. 

Of course, you’re not a chameleon and you can’t be the perfect manager for everyone. Neither should you try to be pleasing each and every colleague. But you do need is an understanding of how different individuals like to be approached, and what they respond best to. 

7. They don’t give credit where credit is due 

It’s human nature to complain when something goes wrong, but to forget to praise all the good work. Pretty much everybody has had a manager like that at some point in their life, and you know it’s not fun. Team members need to feel their work is appreciated, and you really don’t need too much to show them that.

Alternatively, inexperienced managers put the blame on individual team members. “Bobby wasn’t able to finish the project in time”, “Mary wasn’t in the office when she was supposed to,” etc. But since managers are the ones with the oversight, they are responsible for it. Don’t fall into the trap of placing the blame on your team members. Instead, see where you can make changes to avoid similar mistakes in the future

Oh boy, so many...I'll settle with this one first: too friendly, or the total opposite, too mean/strict.