As a leader, you want to be able to motivate, challenge and enable your team to grow to their full potential. But often leaders are their own worst enemies, despite the genuine desire to be the best leader they can be.

Understanding your leadership style is the only way you can change the way you lead, so it benefits your entire team.

Here are five mistakes you could be making which might be hindering you from having a successful and productive team.

Lack of Vision

Vision is one of the most important traits a leader can possess. If you can’t see what it is you are aiming for, then neither can your team. Leading without vision sets you up for immediate failure. Without it, you cannot inspire or motivate your team to work to the best of their ability. Recognise your ideas and share them with your staff to create achievable goals.

Failure to Communicate

Regardless of how detailed your vision is, if you struggle to communicate your goals or ideas from day one, then you will have serious issues. While you don’t have to be the best public speaker in the room to be a good leader, you do have to be able to communicate well across a variety of mediums and understand when to speak and when to listen.

Undefined Goals

You need to ensure that each member of your team has clear goals to help them achieve their workload and stay motivated. Without defined goals, they will struggle to prioritise or complete any task successfully. Individual team members need to be productive and understand their part in the overall scheme of the team. Once they acknowledge their goals, they can then work out how to best meet those goals and have the chance to succeed in their given role.

Fear of Delegation

While you may think that you are safeguarding your team from issues by not delegating, the opposite is in fact true. Not delegating tasks to your team hinders their growth and their potential to step up and get a task done. And not only that, failure to delegate means that you are at a continual risk of becoming overworked and overstressed. Delegate and work with your team efficiently wherever possible to enable your focus to remain unhindered by the little things.

Apprehensiveness to Invest

The best leaders that pass through our doors are the ones who truly appreciate their team. They support their team all the way, supply mentors and provide training wherever it is needed. Showing that you care for your team will give you more power than you realise. Your team will work harder than you can ever imagine and go further than you ever expected, just to earn your support and respect.

Are you leading your team to success?