When I ask attendees at my management trainings to describe a good leader, the responses, understandably, are ideal and positive: “Vision.” “Respect.” “Honesty.” “Clear expectations.” And so on.

Yet I find that even good leaders sometimes fall prey to behaviors that have a negative impact on the managers, supervisors and staff they oversee.

It’s what author and speaker Liz Wiseman calls “accidental diminishing”. In Multipliers, Wiseman talks about how some leaders multiply the intelligence and contributions of those around them while others, equally smart, seem to diminish how smart and motivated others feel.

Let’s look at three behaviors that can accidentally diminish staff at any level:

1. Praising too much
2. Working constantly
3. Withholding real authority

1. Praising too much. Before you start yelling “No-o-o!” and trolling my LinkedIn account, hear me out.

Good leaders always have a number of people who are their “stars” — those super-conscientious folks who are their go-to people. These employees always do things well, so why not tell them so? You should, but just not every time they do something well.

Choose their most outstanding accomplishments and leave more minor ones behind.

Why? For one thing, it’s actually more motivating. The research on everything from smartphone use to slot-machine gambling shows that intermittent rewards keep people more motivated than constant rewards.

Also, Daniel Pink in Drive and other writings illustrates clearly that autonomy, mastery and purpose are bigger motivators at every level than money or praise.

So yes, be generous with your praise. Just don’t be continuous with it.

2. Working constantly. Good leaders have a lot to keep them busy. So busy they can sometimes see only the proverbial trees and not the forest.

One executive director I know has lost the trust of his senior managers who feel they are often kept out of the loop on major decisions until the last minute.

The director protests, however, that he “already works 14-hour days and doesn’t have time to add all that extra communicating.”

I often suggest to leaders like this one that they should “stare out the window more” or do something that causes them to look up from their busy-ness and contemplate the big things: direction, creative possibilities, the workplace culture. In the end they will save two-to-three times the amount of time they “lose”—and they’ll not only be better leaders, they’ll be less stressed.

3. Withholding real authority. Good leaders know they should delegate, and they often perform the initial steps of delegation like freshly-minted MBAs.

Then something might happen: maybe they become anxious that the results they were expecting differ from what they are starting to see. They begin to nibble away around the edges of the authority they supposedly gave. “Handle it any way you see fit. I trust your judgment” soon becomes “I went ahead and spoke to so-and-so and we’re going to do it this way this time.” It doesn’t take long before their direct report loses faith that this leader will stand behind them.

Gradually, the person has been “accidentally diminished.”

A midlevel manager recently described her resulting frame of mind to me: “I feel like I’m on a too-short leash, so I don’t try as hard to excel as I used to. My enthusiastic embrace of challenge has become more like a lukewarm handshake with duty.”

The tricky thing with all of these diminishers is that they are borne of good intentions on the part of the leaders involved. That makes them harder for the leaders themselves to see, but no less impactful to those being led.

If you’re in a leadership position, you may just want to scan your own actions for each day in a period of, say, a week. Then ask yourself, Did you fall into one of these three behaviors? If you did, you might make a plan to take just one action that will mitigate the behavior. If you continue that consistently for three or four weeks, you’re likely to see a positive difference.

One that’s more in line with the good leader you want to be.

What tactics do you use to maximize your effectiveness as a leader?  Join the conversation by adding a comment below.