1. LP2007 – Mistakes Leaders Make
Introduction My Notes
Real life Dilbert-type managers
A magazine recently ran a quot;Dilbert Quotesquot; 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, quot;If I wanted it tomorrow, I would have waited until tomorrow
to ask for it!quot; (Hallmark Cards executive)
9. We know that communication is a problem, but the company is
not going to discuss it with the employees.quot; (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, quot;That would
be better for me.quot; (Shipping executive, FTD Florists)
7. Quote from the Boss: quot;Teamwork is a lot of people doing what
say.quot; (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.quot; (R&D supervisor,
Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing/3M Corp.)
5. quot;Doing it right is no excuse for not meeting the schedule.quot; (Plant
manager, Delco Corporation)
4. quot;This project is so important, we can't let things that are more
important interfere with it.quot; (Advertising/Marketing manager, United
Parcel Service)
3. quot;E-mail is not to be used to pass on information or data. It should
be used only for company business.quot; (Accounting manager, Electric
Boat Company)
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2. 2. quot;What I need is an exact list of specific unknown problems we
might encounter!!quot; (Lykes Lines Shipping)
1. quot;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.quot;
(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)
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3. 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;
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4. 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 quot;under control.quot;
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
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5. 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,
quot;Wait, if I hire her, she’ll have me out of a job in no time.quot;
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
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6. 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, quot;The casualties will be too
great,quot; but Maximus finishes the lieutenant’s sentence so
that instead he said, quot;The casualties will be ‘acceptable.’quot; 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 quot;I was successful at A and I will be successful at Bquot;.
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
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7. 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?
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