mistakes leaders make

Copyright © CNI Training & Development 2007 of 7

LP2007 – Mistakes Leaders Make

Introduction My Notes

Real life Dilbert-type managers

A magazine recently ran a "Dilbert Quotes" contest. They were looking for people to submit quotes from their real life Dilbert-type managers.

Here are the Top Ten finalists:

10. One day my Boss asked me to submit a status report to him concerning a project I was working on. I asked him if tomorrow would be soon enough.

He said, "If I wanted it tomorrow, I would have waited until tomorrow to ask for it!" (Hallmark Cards executive)

9. We know that communication is a problem, but the company is not going to discuss it with the employees." (Switching supervisor, AT&T Long Lines Division)

8. My sister passed away and her funeral was scheduled for Monday. When I told my Boss, he said she died on purpose so that I would have to miss work on the busiest day of the year. He then asked if we could change her burial to Friday. He said, "That would be better for me." (Shipping executive, FTD Florists)

7. Quote from the Boss: "Teamwork is a lot of people doing what say." (Marketing executive, Citrix Corporation)

6. No one will believe you solved this problem in one day! We've been working on it for months. Now, go act busy for a few weeks and I'll let you know when it's time to tell them." (R&D supervisor, Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing/3M Corp.)

5. "Doing it right is no excuse for not meeting the schedule." (Plant manager, Delco Corporation)

4. "This project is so important, we can't let things that are more important interfere with it." (Advertising/Marketing manager, United Parcel Service)

3. "E-mail is not to be used to pass on information or data. It should be used only for company business." (Accounting manager, Electric Boat Company)


2. "What I need is an exact list of specific unknown problems we might encounter!!" (Lykes Lines Shipping)

1. "As of tomorrow, employees will only be able to access the building using individual security cards. Pictures will be taken next Wednesday and employees will receive their cards in two weeks." (This was the winning quote from Fred Dales at Microsoft Corp. in Redmond,WA.)

Why New Leaders Fail

Here are the reasons that managers and executives have either performed below expectations, have been terminated or have voluntarily resigned during their first 18 months. Right Management Consultants asked human resources managers at 100 midsize and large U.S. organizations to name their top three reasons why managers were failing.

1. Failure to build strong relationships and teamwork with subordinates and peers (61 percent)

2. Unable to achieve the most important objectives expected of them (46 percent)

3. Lack the required internal political savvy (37 percent)

4. Unable to form a solid partnership with their bosses (26 percent)

5. Have difficulty managing their own behaviors (20 percent)

6. Take too long to learn their jobs (10 percent)


13 fatal errors managers make and how you can avoid them

by W. Steven Brown

The author recognizes that managers do many things right but he focuses on only the thirteen fatal errors that managers make and recommends how to avoid making them. The fatal errors are:

1. Refuse to Accept Personal Accountability

2. Fail to Develop People

3. Try to Control Results Instead of Influencing Thinking

4. Join the Wrong Crowd--the We/They Syndrome

5. Manage Everyone the Same Way

6. Forget the Importance of Profit

7. Concentrate On Problems Rather Than Objectives

8. Be a Buddy, Not a Boss

9. Fail to Set Standards

10. Fail to Train Your People

11. Condone Incompetence

12. Recognize Only Top Performers

13. Try to Manipulate People

When Leaders Get It Wrong When asked to identify the five things that leaders most often fail to do when working with others, high percentages of respondents targeted the same handful of issues:

Eighty-two percent, for example, cited failing to provide appropriate feedback, praise or redirection as a personal shortcoming;

81 percent weren’t satisfied with their ability to listen or

involve others;


76 percent said they fail to use a leadership style that is appropriate to the person, task and situation, which then leads to over- or under-supervision;

76 percent cited failure to set clear goals and objectives as

a problem; and

59 percent said people in their position too often fail to train and develop their people.

more than 1,400 leaders, managers and executives surveyed by The Ken Blanchard Companies (www.kenblanchard.com)

Top 7 Mistakes Extraordinary Leaders DON'T Make

By Chris Widener

When people make a decision (either consciously or unconsciously) to follow your leadership, they do it primarily because of one of two things: Your character or your skills. They want to know if you are the kind of person they want to follow and if you have the skills to take them further. Yes, there are other variables but these are the bulk of the matter. The following points focus on the kind of skills that cause people to follow your leadership, specifically, things that an extraordinary leader doesn’t do!

1. Not Riding Momentum -- To increase your leadership effectiveness, you want to learn to ride the momentum of the situation (the positive momentum of course!). When we begin to experience bad momentum we naturally try to stop it and that is good, but many people also have the tendency to try to stop the positive momentum as well. This comes from our basic desire to have things "under control." Unfortunately, often when we try to control the situation, we actually stop the good that is happening. So let go of the reigns and ride the momentum!

2. Flaunting the Privilege of Leadership -- Leadership has its privileges, that is for sure. And rightly so! The entrepreneur who started the company ought to be paid well and reap the rewards for the risks that he or she took. Unfortunately, human nature is still such that people can resent the success and privileges of others, even if they worked hard for them. Therefore, an extraordinary leader will not be guilty of flaunting the privileges they have because this is likely to cause a backlash and can actually harm their ability to lead. Whenever possible, share the privileges and rewards of


leadership and your followers will love you all the more!

3. Picking People Who Won't Threaten Them -- An extraordinary leader will always try to pick people who are better than them! Again, human nature is such that we think, "Wait, if I hire her, she’ll have me out of a job in no time." Then we pick someone of lesser quality, while our competitor hires the good one and surges ahead. No, pick the best! If they are better than you, you will grow together as a team and you will still be the leader and people will respect you for your ability to pick -- and lead -- a winning team!

4. Not Having a Second in Command Who Complements Them -- An ordinary leader picks someone who is like them so they can feel comfortable. An extraordinary leader picks someone who can do all the things that he or she can’t; someone who can see things in ways that he or she can’t. An extraordinary leader needs a right hand person who can complement their skills and style. This way the old adage is proved true -- two heads are better than one!

5. Not Giving Power Away -- An ordinary leader wants to do as much as they can so they can be seen as a good, hard worker. They think that they lead by example in this. An extraordinary leader knows that they need to empower others to do the work and make the decisions if the organization is to grow and they are together going to make a difference. We must let others take leadership themselves, even if it means they fail at first. This way we multiply the organizational leadership and we go even further!

6. Unable or Unwilling to Make Hard Decisions -- Leadership is a lot of decision making. Non-leaders don’t like to make decisions because they operate from a subjective viewpoint. They aren’t thinking about the overall health of the organization, they are thinking about who will get mad or who might lose their jobs. While we want to be sensitive to these things, the extraordinary leader understands that sometimes hard decisions have to be made for the sake of the organization -- and they make them. Then they carry them out. John Maxwell says that decisions are like crying


babies: both should be carried out quickly!

7. Trying to Have No Casualties -- This may be the greatest leadership lesson I have ever learned. The extraordinary leader knows that anytime the organization will make ground, there will be casualties. In the movie Gladiator, the lieutenant comes to tell Maximus that the troops are not fully ready for battle. Maximus sees that the other side is about to move and if they don’t move first, they will lose the war. The Lieutenant begins to say, "The casualties will be too great," but Maximus finishes the lieutenant’s sentence so that instead he said, "The casualties will be ‘acceptable.’" I realize now that when my organization moved ahead tremendously a few years ago, the people who got in a huff about it were the casualties and that any time a group moves ahead, that will happen. We shouldn’t look for or enjoy casualties, but understand they will assuredly come, and accept them. So move ahead!

The five biggest CEO career mistakes

Neil Waters, Egon Zehnder International

1. Not knowing what you are good at

A bit of success does tend to dull the senses a little. Arrogance sets up camp. There is a sense that success will itself breed success in any situation. The facts are quite different. In general CEO's tend to excel in one part of the business cycle (turnaround, growth etc). Choosing to move to a company in a very different part of the cycle is a risk, and the person should do so being explicit about it, not thinking "I was successful at A and I will be successful at B".

2. Being blinded by prestige

Many CEO's decide to move too quickly, blinded by the prestige or scope of an opportunity. The person needs to think through two enduring truisms. He or she should be able to leave their current role with their heads held high and confident in the future of that company. Any short cuts in this regard cloud achievements and prompt questuions about judgement. He or she should also not be blinded by the shiny lustre of the new job…all that glitters is not gold. In our experience very few CEO's do enough due diligence in


moving between organisations, particularly in identifying the style and preferences of direct superiors.

3. Not seeking advice

Confidence tends to reduce the felt need to share problems. Why do so when the answer is always obvious? I trust the point here is self evident, namely that every executive must be aware of their own weaknesses at each point in their career and be working on their resolution. Great CEOs make it safe for their staff to provide candid feedback on their performance, and how to improve. They also use mentors extensively, giving time for open and honest discussions about their life journey. Poor CEO's will generally surround themselves with people who are worse than them and seldom disagree.

4. Hasty decision making

More haste, less speed. Poor management decisions can end a CEO's career, and one of the biggest issues in regard to management decision- making is the presumption of the validity of the 30,000 feet view. Some CEOs fail to understand the real organisational context and culture which has led to the current situation. Others do not invest the time to understand the core issues behind a problem, preferring to skate across the surface and draw a conclusion.

5. Poor people judgement

Every CEO thinks he or she is a great judge of character and career potential. But ask yourself how you do it, and really what your success rate is. Very few clients in my experience adopt a rigorous process in candidate interviewing and evaluation. And yet it is critical. Poor CEO's also make appointments for reasons other than the person being the best possible candidate. Are those reasons really legitimate?

mistakes leaders make

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