Not Getting Respect From Your Team? Know Where Things Are Going Wrong

How you behave with your team and your leadership skills play a vital role in leaving a positive impression on the people around you.

As a leader, you must develop cordial relationships with your followers or team members. It goes without saying that if your team has faith in you, they will go that extra mile to accomplish anything that comes their way.

On the other hand, if there’s a lack of mutual understanding and respect between you and your team, things can go haywire at any instant.

Working with a team that doesn’t respect you as a leader will make your life extremely difficult. You will not be able to motivate your team; there will be no coordination, no transparency, no efforts, and, more importantly, no progress.

If you also feel that your team doesn’t respect you, you must figure out why it is happening. Generally, your habits as a leader decide whether your team admires you and connects with you or not.

Here, I will tell you about some bad habits that might be destroying your reputation as a leader.

Bad Habits That Ruin Your Relationship With Your Team

#1 Not Communicating Properly

Some leaders only share messages and information that they think is essential for their teams to accomplish work. Sadly, this is the worst thing that you can do with your team. Your team will form a perception that you only approach them with the information that is absolutely necessary to make progress in a task or project. Eventually, they will start feeling that you don’t trust them, and they slowly begin to disconnect with you.

One of the most important things that leaders need to focus on is team communication. Leaders are responsible for interacting with the people in their team to share important messages and information. Whether it’s the requirements of a task or the client’s feedback, smart leaders communicate everything to maintain transparency in their team.

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#2 Blaming Others (Not Taking Responsibility for Your Actions)

Leaders can quickly lose respect among their teams when they refuse to become accountable for their actions. Instead of accepting their own mistakes, they start blaming other team members. This creates a negative impact on the team, and everyone starts blaming each other whenever something wrong happens.

From time to time, leaders often find themselves in situations where they have to make big decisions that make things better or worse. While it is not possible to make the right decision each time, good leaders always take responsibility for their actions. They humbly accept the appreciation when their decisions bring in good results and welcome criticism positively whenever things go south.

#3 Unwilling to Learn New Things

Not open to learning and always expecting your team to tackle challenges on their own is not a good thing to do as a leader. Failing to involve yourself in activities, like reading books & articles, interacting with other leaders to know about their experiences, and getting familiar with new trends in your industry, will limit your knowledge.

Being the head of a group means that you have to lead by example.

Good leaders never just give their subordinates orders to get the work done, especially when the task is something that the team has never done before. Rather, they are the first ones to figure out how to overcome new challenges. And to make this happen, what they do is develop their knowledge and skills through constant learning.

#4 Failing to Set Goals and Priorities

As you know, the leader has the responsibility of guiding their teams to achieve goals and objectives. However, if you are unclear about what you wish to accomplish with your team’s help, all your efforts will become directionless. Also, when your team is unaware of what they need to accomplish, they will get demotivated and see you as an incompetent leader. Consequently, your team will raise questions about your ability to lead them.

A leader always needs to set clear and achievable goals that need to be communicated with their team. Every team member must know where they are heading with their efforts. Goal setting is crucial for any leader to ensure that their team moves in the right direction while staying motivated. Moreover, leaders prioritize what they need to do to achieve their goals effectively and as fast as possible.

#5 Getting Angry or Frustrated Easily

When you are leading the pack, your mental state can significantly affect the performance of your team. You need to keep a check on how you behave in different situations. If you cannot control your emotions, your actions will become erratic, and you easily get angry or frustrated in difficult situations. You may even insult your team members, which will spoil your relationship with them.

Successful leaders always maintain their calm irrespective of the situations that they are going through. They never let their emotions control their actions that usually come with devastating consequences. Staying calm and composed is the critical trait that any individual who wants to lead a team or group needs to develop.

#6 Praising someone either too early or not praising at all

Appreciating people for their efforts can have a positive impact on their morale and performance. If you do not praise your team members for their achievements, they are likely to feel disheartened. Additionally, giving compliments too often is also not a good thing to do as a leader.

When you appreciate your team members for their everyday responsibilities, they tend to become satisfied with what they are already doing and will not push themselves to do something extraordinary. As a result, the development of personal skills will become non-existent for team members.

A leader should not only know the potential of praise but also when to give it. Good leaders always appreciate their team whenever they achieve something that is beyond ordinary. Moreover, they are well aware that praising their teams either too early or too late can prove counterproductive.

#7 Not Offering Emotional Support

One of the biggest mistakes that may be destroying your image as a leader is failing to give support to your team. From time to time, the people on your team need emotional support to overcome their challenges. Not offering any kind of assistance to your team members will make them feel that you don’t care about them or their well-being. Also, this will enable them to withdraw easily whenever you need their support to fight difficult situations.

Leadership is all about moving forward, not as an individual but as a group. And this becomes possible when everyone within the group supports and lends a helping hand to each other. Great leaders offer help to every single individual in their team to become successful.

#8 Visualizing Negative Side of Everything

The combination of being a leader and pessimistic will bring disastrous results for both your team and the business. How will you stay motivated when all you see is the bad side of everything happening around you? Being a pessimistic leader, it’ll be difficult for you to embrace change and experiment with new strategies. Moreover, your team members will also hesitate to connect with you as they are likely to see you as a judgmental and cynical personality.

Optimism is definitely the most common trait that leaders embrace and try to develop among them. However, staying optimistic can also be bad because a leader will overlook the pitfalls that can cause issues and difficulties. True leaders are realistic. They consider both the positive and negative aspects of a situation, opportunity, or idea and then act accordingly.

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Bottom Line

You must do things the right way because your actions will affect the people who follow you. Your success as a leader is mostly dependent on the bond that you share with your team.

Remember, if your team doesn’t respect you, they will not follow your ideas, and there will be chaos. You need to check if you have developed any of the bad habits mentioned above and get rid of them at the earliest to emerge as a successful leader.

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