Signs Your Leadership Style Is Too Harsh

One of the most important attributes that you can have as a manager is sound leadership. You need to be assertive in your job so that you can rally people together and get things done, but often this can come across as being harsh. Nobody wants to work for a boss who makes them feel small. While you need to get everybody on task and focused on the same things, you don’t have to be the kind of person that is pushing the staff to the point they think you’re a bully. You need to have a business that is relaxed, but focused. Happy, but motivated. You cannot achieve these things if you are a dictator.

Instead, it could help you to realize what your own mistakes are as a leader. You mustn’t forget that it’s your job to make sure that you encourage your own personal growth while enhancing the careers of others in your business. While there is a time and a place for combat proven military structures, your office on the 15th floor may not be that place. Do you want to be harsh? Or do you want to be firm? There is a big difference between harsh and firm – and if you’re unsure of the difference, here are the signs your leadership style is far too harsh for your staff.

• Your constructive criticism is not constructive. A big part of your job is to be guiding the people who work for you. Their end goal is likely not going to be working in your business, and that’s okay! However, it doesn’t mean that you should be tearing them down with criticism that you believe it’s constructive when it’s not. You have to tell people what they need to improve on, but if it ends up with you berating everybody, you’re doing the wrong thing.
• People are not responding to your feedback. If you’re too rough with your employees, or you’re constantly telling them what they are doing wrong without any give-and-take as to what they are doing right, they’re going to shut down. You need people who are responding well to you, and one of the main things that you need to concentrate on is your feedback has to be delivered in the right way. This will help people to see that you’re helping and not harming.
• Did you notice the room go quiet when you walked in? If everybody in your business is chatting and having a great time but your presence in the room is killing that, this is a problem. It proves that your employees don’t want to share any of the joy with you – and it’s a warning sign that they feel like you’re going to tell them off for having fun.
• You are far too controlling. There is such a thing as helicopter management, and if you are busy hovering over everybody and dictating how they should do the jobs that you hired them today, they don’t feel trusted. This shows that your leadership style is far too harsh.

Don’t panic too much; there are ways to get around having a hard leadership style, but it definitely starts with training yourself and getting some help as to how you can be a better and more effective leader.