The Top 5 Mistakes of Unsuccessful Leaders

Mistakes that don’t hurt don’t matter. The worst mistakes are the ones that hurt others. The trouble with leadership is your mistakes always hurt others.

The top 5 mistakes of unsuccessful leaders:

1. Not being open to criticism.
2. Trying to hide mistakes.
3. Not making decisions.
4. Failing to explain objectives.
5. Telling people how to do things rather than telling them what needs to be done and letting them figure out how to do it.

Read more from Facebook contributors.

Good and bad:

Someone said,

“If you don’t make mistakes
you don’t make anything.”

In other words, the fear of making mistakes hinders, delays, even stops forward movement.

The best mistakes are learning
experience that aren’t repeated.

The top 5 positive behaviors of great mistake-makers:

1. Exploration. Good mistake-makers innovate; poor ones repeat and stagnate.
2. Learning and adapting quickly.
3. Enjoyment. Those who can’t learn and adapt can’t enjoy life.
4. Clear perception. Willingness to make mistakes frees leaders from pretending everything’s ok. They see things as they are not as they wish them to be.
5. Increasing efficiency and effectiveness as time passes.

Bonus: Humility; the behavior that makes all others effective.

The top mistake of team-leaders:

Weinzimmer and McConoughey say, “…drama mismanagement derails a leader’s ability to manage teams.” (The Wisdom of Failure)

According to Weinzimmer and McConoughey leaders contribute to overly dramatic atmospheres when they create dysfunctional harmony by:

1. Bullying with intimidating tactics or demeaning comments.
2. Trying to be liked by everyone.
3. Insisting everyone likes each other all the time. The need to preserve the appearance of harmony leads to passive-aggressive behaviors within teams.
4. Mismanaging competition within teams that leads to divisiveness.

Even more on mistakes:

The Top 25 Dumb Mistakes Leaders Make

Top Three Mistakes Leaders Make

13 New-Leader Screw Ups

What lessons have you learned from your mistakes?

Specifically, how do leaders inflate drama in the workplace. How can they deflate it?

13 New-Leader Screw Ups

Mistakes matter more when you’re the new kid on the block. Long-term relationships contextualize and soften occasional screw ups.

13 mistakes new leaders make:

1. Forgetting your arrival stresses others, including those who hired you. The stress you feel, others feel too.
2. Proving technical skill. You don’t need to prove what you know. You did that when they hired you. Own the job. You’re qualified.
3. Reaching for big wins. Grab low hanging fruit. Win small – win often. Big wins are the result of a series of small wins.
4. Believing everything you’re told. People have agendas. Trust but verify.
5. Basing confidence in technical skills rather than the ability to learn.
6. Making yourself look good while neglecting others. You look good when you make others look good. Use “we” more than “I” or “me”.
7. Making statements before asking questions. Questions make new leaders look smart.
8. Forgetting what’s small to you is big to others. Before changing things ask, “Who’s impacted?”
9. Neglecting the social game. New leaders get so busy they forget to connect vertically and horizontally within organizations.
10. Not making decisions. Listen, investigate, seek suggestions, but whatever you do, decide.
11. Neglecting the players who really get things done while focusing on high profile people. Play with players who aren’t official leaders.
12. Forgetting names.
13. Making premature judgments about people. Watch the quiet ones. They offer more than you think.

Bonus tip: When you feel the need to receive honor, give it.

Facebook contributors add their own list of mistakes new leaders make: Leadership Freak Coffee Shop (second question down the page)

What mistakes have you seen new leaders make?

How can new leaders avoid common new-leader mistakes?