6 Common Company Director Mistakes You Need to Avoid

As a company director, you have the power to change the course of your business. You can influence its direction of travel, build a team in the way you see fit and have the ultimate say when it comes to expenditure.

It’s a powerful position to be in and, as with any high-level responsibility, is particularly susceptible to poor decision making. Quite often, the resulting mistakes can be very damaging indeed.

With that in mind, this post focuses on 6 of the most common company director mistakes. You should do all you can to avoid them.

1. Poor budgeting

Budgets are essential in business. Without them, how can you know the level of spend you’ll need to commit to marketing and the expected result it will have on sales?

As a director, you need to be deeply involved in budgeting, no matter the area of the business you’re tasked with overseeing. Budget sensibly and set achievable sales targets.

2. Lack of communication

There’s a lot of stuff going on in your head – plans, ideas and opinions on the direction of travel, but if you fail to communicate any of it to your colleagues, there’s little chance of anything coming to fruition.

Poor communication dissatisfies staff and is one of the chief architects of a negative atmosphere amongst the ranks. Make sure your communications are easy to digest and designed to be a two-way affair – the business simply won’t succeed if you don’t.

3. Not listening

“When did we decide to do that?” If you’ve uttered those words in a board or department meeting, you’re not listening properly. Equally, if staff members beginning to leave in their droves, there’s a good chance you didn’t lend an ear when you should have.

Which brings me onto the next point…

4. Leaving the office door closed

It is one of the oldest yet most important clichés in business: always leave your door metaphorically open. Encourage staff to speak to you face-to-face whenever they have a question, idea or concern.

As a regular employee, there’s nothing worse than an untouchable director. You may be at the top of the food chain, but the business is still a team effort, and you need to let those below you into your world whenever they need you.

5. Not delegating

You don’t have to do everything. As a director, you may believe that only you can perform certain tasks and that the last thing you would ever want to do is hand the reigns of an important project over to someone below your pay scale.

Time for a reality check: delegating is an essential productivity technique for directors. If you’re struggling to get everything done each day and find yourself neglecting your director duties, review your to-do list and start handing jobs out to others.

6. Not accepting responsibility

We all make mistakes. Chances are, you’ve made one this week. In such instances, it is essential you demonstrate leadership and show you’re not afraid to accept responsibility.

Point out your mistakes to colleagues and tell them what you’re going to do to avoid future instances. You’ll garner ultimate respect as a result – we’re all human, after all.

Summary

Mistakes are important learning tools. Without them, our careers would stagnate and we’d never grow as individuals, but make the wrong mistakes and, as a company director, you could potentially bring the entire company crashing down around you.

Follow the tips above, and you’ll only ever make the mistakes that are good for your career and business.

Image credit

(34)