5 tips for failing as a manager

Charles Jacobs, author of Management Rewired shares 5 Tips for Failing Miserably as a Manager. He says "My research in brain science proves that these following tips are guaranteed to make any manager fail to achieve the results they intended:"

1) Check with Your People Frequently to See If They Need Help. Not only will this suck up huge amounts of your time, it will distract you from the more value-added strategic work you should be doing. Even better, though, it will drive your people nuts. Given their perspective, they'll misinterpret it as you checking on them because you don't trust their competence. They'll become resentful and passive, ensuring that the performance of your business spirals downward.

2) Give Direct Feedback on Performance. Even if you think it's constructive, they won't. Because it conflicts with their self-image, they'll either reject the feedback or reject you. If it comes across even the least bit punitive, they'll growl at you with aggression and be motivated to do exactly what the feedback tells them they shouldn't. In other words, if you tell them "You could be better at punctuality" this will ensure that they won't show up to work at all.

3) Set Stretch Objectives. If they're really a stretch, there's no way people will be able to achieve them, and they'll become so frustrated that they'll stop even trying. Because the objectives come from you, rather than from them, you can bet they won't be a good fit with the job. Plus, if you insist on managing only by the numbers, without reference to an aspirational vision, you'll guarantee that people don't use the emotional part of the brain. It will both sap their energy and bar them from accessing the past learning that allows them to make better decisions. So if you tell them to reach for the stars, they'll instead reach for a sledgehammer with your name on it.

4) Focus on Behavior, Not Attitude or Intent. If you tell people specifically what to do and don't address the thinking behind the behavior, you can ensure they'll do it badly. Without that overarching understanding, the behavior won't fit the specific situation they find themselves in, different behaviors will conflict with one another, and they'll be executed unwillingly. When AT&T insisted that operators say, "Thank you for calling AT&T," their snarkiness reached new heights.

5) Install Tight Control Systems to Ensure the Right Behavior. Control systems may just be the best tool for a manager that wants to fail. They signal that employees aren't trusted to do the right thing and so demolish their loyalty. They're costly and tend to squander resources, like the one that insisted on reports filed for even a fifty-dollar expense when it cost seventy-five dollars to process it. If they're particularly irksome, employees will waste countless hours figuring out how to subvert them. Best of all, control systems eliminate any need for employees to feel they're personally responsible for doing the right thing.