7 Signs your leader(s) are killing your business!

Things don’t seem right at work. Whether you disagree with a direction or find yourself just plain unhappy, chances are you are working for a company that is in trouble. How can I tell if your leaders are destroying your business? Look for these seven signs your leader(s) are killing your business!

Let’s take a look at the following signs.

To make matters worse, the boss you placed in charge is so overwhelmed that he or she does not know where to start toward improving the situation.

When you are in a high position, it is easy to “blame” the employees below you, especially those at the bottom tier.

Yet, more often than not, those employees are golden. Meaning they are dedicated, hardworking individuals who take pride in their work and strive to make things work for your company.

Sometimes, they don’t understand the direction given but still work their hardest to meet expectations.

But what does that mean for the leadership? Are they exempt?

If you are a business owner and you find your business struggling and in trouble, please take a moment to remove yourself from the situation and analyze it. Look for signs.

A leader is someone who knows the way, goes the way, and shows the way JOHN C. MAXWELL

Many business owners place a lot of TRUST in the leaders they place in charge. Such a title does not come without trust and, to a small degree, some small emotional attachment.

The relationships they build working together grow and then become more family-type, thus “covering” your eyes to a potential rotten apple.

Unintentionally, Sally or Joe (random names provided) have been provided a great opportunity, yet they may potentially be running your business to the ground.

7 Signs your leader(s) are killing your business

Finances

Is your business struggling financially? Are you not achieving the goal and objectives needed to make a profit? Whether the business is retail, restaurant, service, or another, making a profit is important. To make money is the reason a business primarily exists.

Business owners, their leaders, and/or managers often look for ways to cut costs to combat the loss of profit. It is necessary to do this if your business finances are hemorrhaging.

But before the decision is made to cut costs, has the decision been made to investigate why the finances aren’t there? You adjust budgets, cut, and then cut some more, but the problem remains.

A smart business person asks: Why are we struggling financially? And… should be followed by What are we gonna do differently?

And what do businesses often usually cut? Salaries. The number one victim. Followed by inventory, labor on the floor is often a big hitter.

Not answering this question does not fix the problem. Now, we could potentially sit here and discuss a plethora of topics just on finance alone, but this post is about poor leadership killing your business.

Dear business owners, it is very important you consider your leaders.

That may be the salary that needs to be cut. But let’s explore the next six signs.

Blaming

If you are running multi-unit businesses like Walmart, Subway, McDonald’s, and Dollar Tree, to name a few, you know that each location is its own entity that belongs to the rest of the company.

Usually, leaders in these locations are entrusted to manage them. Those are your General Manager, Assistant Manager, Store Manager, etc.

True, they are responsible for maintaining that unit running effectively and profitably. Oftentimes, they have an area manager who oversees them and others. And these supervisors have bosses, too.

When presented with a problem, your expectation as the business owner is that they develop a solution and course correctly. This is what you pay them for.

A good leader takes ownership and develops a plan to improve it.

A poor leader blames.

It could be the circumstances, their subordinates, and sometimes even their own bosses, but the fact of the matter is that by blaming, they don’t accept responsibility.

My advice when having discussions with your teams is as follows. Starting from the top to the last person, listen to and analyze how they respond to the questions or situations and if they are quick to blame.

Lack of vision

Mostly, every company has a mission statement or a general vision of their goal. That starts with the owner, but as important as it is to the owner, it is far more critical to the leaders placed in charge.

It becomes the leader’s job to implement your vision in the company. With that being said, it is very important for said leaders to embody the vision as they are role models.

Poor leaders do not practice or demonstrate the vision but expect their employees to live by them. When did they become exempt? If your leader does not enforce it, then he must not believe in your vision. Think about that for a second.

Having a vision also helps in futureproofing your business. This is a very important skill to have, especially in an ever-evolving climate. One of the important signs of note.

No support

A bad leader promises their employees some support, but when it comes down to it, they don’t. And usually, they place blame on any number of reasons. Something always comes up. Always a bad sign.

When troubleshooting situations, I advise you to also start from the top and listen to your leaders interact with their subordinates.

Sometimes, leaders do not like a specific individual for whatever reason and provide very little, if any, support to their subordinate or peer just because they don’t like him or her.

Another location is short-staffed, or they got called into a” last-minute meeting, amongst many other reasons. Always and perhaps unintentionally an excuse.

A very old boss of mine from over ten years ago would tell me that his listening to me complain/vent about my issues and/or concerns was his way of providing support. What do you think about that?

Listening is crucial when you analyze. If you do your homework, you can easily determine if your leader(s) are providing support. Crappy leaders don’t provide the correct support. Crappy leaders also do not know how to ask the right questions.

If your lower team doesn’t see, get, or feel support from their leader(s), it will affect their morale, leading to another sign. Lack of support from your leaders is one of the worst signs.

Leaders who don’t listen will eventually be surrounded by people who have nothing to say. ANDY STANLEY

Employee Morale

Employee morale can be affected by a great number of things. Things like poor working conditions caused by any number of factors, including unsafe work environment, broken equipment, or even working short-staffed, greatly affect morale.

However, these things can be fixed easily and do not always cost much; exceptions exist.

But did you know that poor leadership can affect morale, too? It is the expectation that leaders placed in charge of your business can develop and promote workplace fun and enthusiasm.

Having poor leaders or rotten apples in leadership can kill your best employees and hurt your business. This statement applies to all leadership levels, from the top to the bottom. If your business has a leader who is causing harm to your employee morale, then something must be done ASAP.

The most powerful leadership tool you have is your own example. JOHN WOODEN

Being disrespectful and unprofessional in leaders is unacceptable behavior. Look out for the signs that prove this may be happening.

If a leader cannot be a role model, then that person is not a leader.

Blaming, as mentioned above, and the foul, offensive, rude, or antagonistic tone of voice are surefire signs for you. I always said that no matter the circumstance, a good leader never swears.

Do they talk junk about their coworkers amongst themselves or to their peers? Another big sign is that this boss is hurting your team’s morale.

If you are losing all your best employees and have retention issues with any new or remaining ones, you must look at the leadership. Yes, people do work for money but often quit due to bad leadership. Just as big is encouraging, developing, recognizing, or empowering the wrong employee. That destroys morale.

To a large degree, the phrase people work for people carries some weight.

It is very hard to stay positive, so people eventually give up.

If this is an area of opportunity, it is advised that it can be corrected ASAP.

The successful leader does not talk down to people, he lifts them up! RICHARD M. NIXON

Unrealistic Expectations

A poor leader also sets unrealistic expectations for the company and its employees. These expectations are often driven by the financial pressure set by the company’s underperforming. No matter what causes the situation, if a leader continues to react instead of pro-acting, then there is a problem.

Having unrealistic expectations also affects employee morale. One of the best feelings in the world is crossing an item off a list once completed. When you have unrealistic expectations, the list remains incomplete.

But let’s think bigger. I’m going to give you an example. You operate a small factory of 6 employees, which also requires just six employees to build a piece of machinery, and every day, your quota is to make 3000 of those machines day in and day out.

The company, however, is struggling financially for various reasons unrelated to the factory. But to cut costs, you decide to cut a person, yet you still need to make 3000 units daily because the demand for such items hasn’t changed.

Of course, the new team of 5 will pick up the slack and do their best to deliver. For the first couple of days, there was no problem. They perform well, thus increasing company productivity and reducing costs. Except for the terminated employee, that’s a win for the company, right? That’s a smart move.

But now the company is still struggling financially, so we must sell more machines to offset expenses and hopefully turn in a profit. So, let’s change the daily quota to 4000. But, we are not hiring anyone else or bringing in the 6th person. So five people need to produce an extra 1000 units in the same time span with one less person.

What happens, then?

What do you think is gonna happen to the newly developed productive team? They are gonna get tired, and they will ask for help. They will start calling out sick or playing sick. Some, if not all, will quit!

Four people will not be able to keep up or produce. What do you think will happen to the sales of such products? The business is still struggling financially because it’s running with tired and overworked employees. So what does the leader do?

A poor leader will not see that he caused this problem by having unrealistic expectations. Instead, that person will blame the team and look for replacements. In contrast, the right leader will not allow this to happen in the first place.

It isn’t the team’s fault they could not deliver, thus affecting operations. It’s just poor decision-making; now your business is paying for it. And if a business isn’t growing, that means it’s not making enough profit to be sustainable long term.

Your leadership is now living in a cycle that must be broken. So look out for unrealistic expectations, one of 7 signs.

Loss of customers

Lastly, your clientele is the livelihood of your business. Without them, businesses cannot afford to stay open and must shut their doors, eventually vanishing from our memories.

Many factors can cause loss of customers, but the major one is usually operations followed by negative experiences or complaints.

Customers will notice if a business cannot operate at its A-game or even its B-game(depending on the field). Most people will give you one chance, and that’s it, while loyal customers will give you a few opportunities to fix it.

But if you continue to fail them, they will get tired, and you will lose their loyalty.

DEAR LEADER(S) – HAVING UNREALISTIC EXPECTATIONS CAN AND WILL SCREW YOUR OPERATIONS AND HURT YOUR BUSINESS LONG TERM.

In today’s business climate, owners must work very hard to be entuned into their businesses between the recovery from the pandemic and the competition.

In the end

With all the reasons provided( 7 signs), I hope you were able to think a bit differently about your leadership team. While this post may have been seen as negative or as an attack on leadership, I promise you it is not.

My article has been written to assist you in managing your business while discussing potentially realistic situations involving poor leaders.

It’s true; poor leadership can ruin a company. The same, however, can be said for great leadership.

Great leadership can do wonders for a company. To all the hardworking leaders who may have come across this post, understand that I admire and respect your determination, and I wish you continued success.

As for my business owners, take care and rock on! And don’t forget to look out for the signs.

A leader who does not understand their business should not have any part in the business. .ANTHONY S

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