Leadership

Tuesday Buzz: Leadership Styles That Don’t Work

These leadership styles are only going to make your job more difficult. Also: Tips for running a more productive virtual meeting.

No one can reasonably say that one leadership style works for all associations. But there are a few leadership characteristics that won’t help you achieve your goals and will make your employees unhappy.

Take the unrealistically optimistic leader, for instance. In general, optimism is a good thing, but it can also blind you to faults within your association or your team and negatively affect your decision-making. “Such an individual might expect the best out of people, even if history has proven otherwise,” writes Jayson DeMers in a recent post for Entrepreneur. “An optimist might also trust gut instinct over raw data.”

Micromanaging is well-known to be an unfavorable leadership trait, but don’t overcompensate by keeping yourself at a distance. Employees should be independent, but your recognition and guidance are invaluable to your team. “If a boss isn’t there to field these requests, or even worse, provide initial direction, employees will burn out fast,” says DeMers.

DeMers also warns against being more reactive than proactive and employing a narcissistic style of leadership.

More Productive

Technology has made hosting internal virtual meetings easier than ever, but just because the tech works doesn’t mean the meeting will automatically be productive. A little extra work is required to ensure that virtual meetings will be as useful as you’d like them to be.

The Wild Apricot blog shares several steps to running a productive virtual meeting. Start by distributing the meeting agenda several days beforehand to give attendees plenty of time to prepare.

The blog post also identifies three critical roles you’ll need to help the meeting run smoothly: the greeter, who welcomes everyone to the call; the time manager, who keeps topics on track and the action manager, who “summarizes actions verbally at the end.”

Other Links of Note

Could your email newsletter use a redesign? To inspire you, Really Good Emails shares some of the latest design trends.

You probably hate office jargon, but you’ve also probably caught yourself saying “in the weeds” and “net-net” from time to time. The Ladders shares 12 awful phrases we should all stop saying.

Gap years aren’t just for college kids. The New York Times reports on opportunities for retirees to travel and try something new.

(iStock/Thinkstock)

Raegan Johnson

By Raegan Johnson

Raegan Johnson is a contributor to Associations Now. MORE

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