Executive Central: Ten mistakes leaders make

April 23, 2009

Niche management and leadership consultancy Executive Central has put together a list of the ten mistakes leaders most commonly make.
Mistakes Leaders Make

1.    Failure to behave consistently with the stated values of the organisation:  Whether they realise it or not, everyone in an organisation watches the leaders behaviour as if he or she were under a magnifying glass.  If this behaviour is in any way inconsistent with the stated values of the organisation, people will immediately begin not to trust both the leader and the organisation more broadly.  Without trust, people will simply never take risks, try anything new, or give fully of themselves in their jobs.
2.    Failing to flex their approach to different styles of people:  Many leaders, particularly under stress, tend to operate in the way that they are most comfortable, forgetting that this may not be comfortable for many people around them.  If leadership is about achieving things with and through others, leaders will fail to achieve this without the ability to make these “other people” comfortable, motivated and energised.
3.    Failure to listen effectively:  Many leaders talk a lot and don’t listen very well. The most crucial skill of any leader is communication and communication is 90% about listening and only 10% about talking.  Without this skill, leaders often fail to successfully enlist people in a common vision and direction.  They may also fail to test for an alignment of understanding and expectations among their staff by questioning and listening for this.
4.    Poor time management across three key areas:

• Diary management – back to back meetings with insufficient time to prepare for meetings and to carry out other tasks in the day.  Leaders end up taking work home, working longer hours and in do doing, significantly compromise their personal life and relationships with those around them
• Lack of discipline in managing calls and e mails.  This disrupts the tasks in which the executive is involved with a resultant lack of effectiveness
• Not prioritising tasks and concentrating on those which will have the highest level of impact on the business.  A lack of definition around which are urgent and which are important

5.    An inability to turn strategy into action to ensure the successful delivery of the business outcomes:  In many cases, while leaders may be skilled at identifying the strategic changes needed in their businesses, they often find it difficult to manage their people and business processes required to turn these strategic changes into actions.  They may also fail to take into account the implications of strategic changes on people and systems.
6.    Taking over too many tasks:  During times of heavy workloads or stress the tendency for leaders is to take over the tasks of their direct reports because they believe they can do it quicker and better themselves.  Leaders very often come from roles where they were highly skilled in the technical aspects of their work.  They are often appointed to lead their peers, but with minimal or no training.  The result is that, under stress, they retreat into what they know and do best – doing what their previous role entailed, thus taking on too many day-to-day tasks and decreasing their time on strategic leadership tasks.  This also negatively impacts the level of confidence and competence of team members.
7.    Failure to allow for enough quality one-on-one time with each of their staff:  Many leaders schedule time for one-on-one meetings with their direct reports, but all too often these are postponed or cancelled when something “more important” comes up.  When they do go ahead, these meeting often focus 90%-100% on operational matters and fail to allow any time for open two-way feedback and/or coaching from the leader.
8.    Inability to motivate:  This is particularly relevant during times of stress when leaders tend to find fault and criticise staff but rarely find time to praise or reward staff when they are performing to expectations, which results in a demotivated team and potentially an environment of fear.  In businesses where leaders react with emotional outbursts to situations, team members learn to protect themselves, become more risk averse and may not take bad news to the leader for fear of reprisal
9.    Inability to communicate upwards and influence effectively:  Many leaders fail to prioritise the development of strong alliances with their superiors and peers.  As such, there can often be a lack of alignment with their own leaders and/or peers around critical aspects of the business.  This can often lead to a misalignment of success criteria, inefficient interaction between business units, and failure to realise the full potential of the organisations products or services due to silo’s behaviour.
10.    Inability to lead change as well as the leaders’ own resistance to change: 75% of change initiatives fail to reach their desired objectives because leaders pay insufficient attention to how best to create ownership among those who will be affected by the change.  In addition, many leaders themselves are not comfortable with the degree of change in today’s business environment and are not able to cope with the change themselves let alone lead their team through change.

Comments

• Search for: