101 Biggest Mistakes Managers Make and How to Avoid Them

Book excerpt: Supervisory training teaches you about a lot of things you should do, such as how to prepare a performance appraisal, conduct a meeting, divide up work, or manage your time. What it usually leaves out are all the things you shouldn’t do—the subtle and not-so-subtle mistakes in managing people that could haunt you the rest of your career. Now there’s a comprehensive, instant-answer guide to avoiding over 100 of the most common mistakes made by managers that no business course ever told you about. This valuable career-enhancing guide details where the pitfalls lie, so you can avoid them more easily, as well as how to recover from a mistake quickly and prevent it from happening again. You’ll discover how to avoid such management blunders as: • Not having clear objectives • Delegating the wrong jobs • Being defensive to criticism • Ignoring office politics • Taking on risky projects with little payoff • Solving performance problems with new technology • Getting caught up in the rumor mill • Letting other managers steal away your staff • And much more! Armed with this guide, you don’t have to complete an entire managerial career realizing your mistakes only after you had to suffer the consequences. You’ll know exactly what to do and say in virtually any delicate business situation . . . and boost your success in the process.