As the holidays approach, we’re always reminded of what may be the worst boss of all time: Ebenezer Scrooge of the Dickens classic A Christmas Carol. So tightfisted that his name has come to be a synonym for a miser, Scrooge pays the lowest wages, provides the worst working conditions, requires the longest hours—even at Christmas!—refuses to give to charity, and is deeply unpleasant. Pre-redemption, Scrooge must have been a lot for even the saintly Bob Cratchit to bear.

Most of us will never be even in the same universe as Scrooge when it comes to flawed leadership. But any of us, in smaller ways, may be subject to the same influences that turned him in a bad direction. It comes down to being locked into your own point of view, getting stuck in your own priorities, and being unwilling to see things from another perspective.

Here are some of the top ways that you may be demonstrating a touch of Scroogedom, frustrating your team members and making their work harder:

Failing to respond (to e-mails or phone calls.)

Maybe they’ve got a client waiting on information, or a tricky decision that they want to clear with you. Maybe they need to follow up on an earlier issue. Maybe they need to remind you that a project is awaiting your input.

From your perspective, it’s an inbox full of demands. And since the demands aren’t coming from your boss, or from anyone on your client list, they’re easy to put off.

But when you ignore your team, you hinder their ability to do their job. You leave them in an awkward position of wondering whether they should risk annoying you by checking in again, or risk missing a deadline by waiting quietly for you to do your part.

If responding to your team is a legitimate burden, there are always steps you can take: Delegate routine approvals and decisions to other trusted staff members. Set up a priority system that limits your availability for things that can wait while leaving you accessible for things that need immediate attention.

Limiting opportunities for professional development.

Whether it’s going back to school or attending a conference or seminar, many employees are seeking ways to keep learning.

Lots of leaders take a Scroogelike view of professional development. They maintain it’s not their job to hand out free vacations or pay for classes that will help employees find another job. At best, they see it as a luxury item reserved for the best of times.

But helping your staff learn and grow is important to a good operation in a number of ways. First and foremost the pace of technological change in many fields makes it more important than ever to maintain up-to-date skills. Morale and motivation benefit from professional involvement and development, and employees gain skills that will help them do a better job for you.

You probably can’t meet every request, but meet as many as you can, with a system that allocates things like conference participation equitably. If you can’t pay employees’ tuition, maybe you can help them connect with an industry-specific source of educational grants and scholarships, or with one of the growing number of free and low-cost online courses in virtually every professional development field. If nothing else, you can set aside time in the work day for people to attend class or otherwise update their knowledge and skills.

Taking too long to make decisions.

When you sit at the desk where the buck stops, making decisions is often a huge part of what you do. It’s easy to overthink and start stressing about the repercussions if you get it wrong. What kind of precedent are you setting? What if it doesn’t work? Are there possible bad consequences you might you be overlooking? It’s easy to keep kicking the can down the road with more study, more thought—paralysis by analysis.

But when your team needs you to act, failing to do so is also a decision—more often than not, a decision that doesn’t end well. Leadership may mean keeping a cool head and thinking things through, but it also means trusting your instinct and being bold in the moment—and, if there’s risk involved, taking it on yourself. Giving your team everything they need to excel is fundamental to the role of leader.

It’s not likely you’ll ever hear yourself exclaiming “Bah! Humbug!” But if you want to give yourself a truly useful gift this year, learn to look at your leadership from the perspective of your team members—without the help of Marley’s ghost.

{Image Credit: Robert Doucette via Wikimedia}