A key to becoming the best leader you can be is to identify any leadership weaknesses that you possess. Following are some leadership weaknesses that you should try to avoid. During your time as a leader, take some time at various intervals to assess your own strengths and weaknesses.

Withholding Feedback

One of the most common leadership weaknesses is not providing consistent feedback to your team members. You should not wait until a performance review or evaluation time to give a member feedback. If you are aware of something that a member is dong incorrectly, you should provide feedback on that issue immediately. This will make your member aware of the issue and give him or her an opportunity to improve. Don’t forget that feedback can also be positive. Be sure to provide feedback on what the team member is doing well, also.

Take Time to Support Your Team

Another of the main leadership weaknesses is not taking the time to support your team. Regardless of how full your plate is, you must take time to ensure that your team members have a clear idea of what they are supposed to do and what objectives you want them to meet. Block time out on your schedule to do this. Listening is an important part of this process. Be sure to actively listen to your team members, especially if they are expressing needs and concerns.

Keep an Eye on Progress

Though many leaders do not like to micromanage, one of the primary leadership weaknesses is to be completely “hands-off.” This approach can have disastrous results. If you have a team member that is performing an important task, be sure to check in at intervals to see that he or she is meeting specifications and correctly completing the project to avoid any surprises when the project is due for delivery.

Establish Your Role

You might not want to rule with an iron fist, so to speak, but you should firmly establish your role as a leader. One of the leadership weaknesses that leaders make is trying to be the friend of team members. This is not your role. As a leader, you will inevitably have to make some difficult decisions, and you do not want relationships with team members to hinder your ability to make those decisions.  Set clear boundaries, and use the same boundaries for all of your team members.

Define Goals

As the leader one of your jobs is to make sure that your team members have a clear vision of your goals.  Your team members cannot be productive or prioritize their work if they don’t know what goals they are working towards and how their work supports those goals. Also, when you define your team’s goals, make sure they are aware of all of the resources available to them.

Turn Your Leadership Weaknesses into Strengths

These are just some leadership weaknesses. The important thing is to be open to identifying weaknesses and finding ways to change them. Though you might not want to face your weaknesses head on, you will find that doing so has a definite payoff. As you define weaknesses and work on them, they will probably become some of your greatest strengths.