My friend Randi Busse of Workforce Development Group teaches her customers how to “turn your customers into raving fans.” That inspired me to use some good ol’ reverse psychology and talk about how to turn your employees into raving lunatics.
Nobody intends to turn their employees into frustrated nut jobs, but the fact is … it happens. Here are my top 10 ways to make your staff crazy:
1) Say this, do that.
2) Make people guess what you want.
3) React to bad news badly.
4) Micromanage the details and ignore the big picture.
5) Make everything a priority.
6) Fail to encourage.
7) Assume employees know and think the same thing you do.
8 ) Make it personal.
9) Run meetings poorly.
10) Fail to see the humor.
If you’ve got your own list, I’d like to see it!
Even lovely, well-intentioned people (like you and me) can make some of these mistakes from time to time. Here’s the good news: We can do better! All it takes is a little more attention to how — and what — we communicate.