There are many things a good leader does to help their team gain focus, stay motivated, and produce great work. However, there are also some very common mistakes that many leaders make that they don’t even know are killing their team’s ability to engage with their work. This is especially true when doing creative work, because it requires tremendous trust and an ability to take risks that could be costly to correct later.

The better you are at setting good rails for your team, the more they will feel freedom to bring their best ideas and work to the table.

Today I discuss a few ways that leaders unknowingly squelch their team’s creativity, and to do about it.

(These ideas originally appeared in my column at INC.)

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Today’s episode is sponsored by Freshbooks. To claim your free month trial – with no credit card needed – visit Freshbooks.com/accidental.

Music for the AC podcast is by Joshua Seurkamp. End remix is by DJ Z-Trip.