From Questions for leaders
What is one mistake you witness leaders making more frequently than others?
Leaders are human, and like all humans, they make mistakes, I know I do, certainly more than I would like to admit.
I think that for this question, I will answer it slightly differently, looking at what I think are some of the bigger mistakes that leaders make, and the ones that I try to avoid.
Firstly, I think that as leaders that we always need to do, what we say we will do. This builds trust.
I often see leaders say one thing, and do another, or they don’t apply the rules in the same way to themselves, as they apply to them to their staff. We then compound this mistake, by assuming that our teams are too dumb to notice.
They’re not, and they do notice!
This then leads to a lack of trust, and when we lose trust, we lose our followers. I think this is probably the biggest makes I see leaders make.
Another big mistake I frequently see is, leaders taking as much of the credit for their teams success, as is possible.
Everyone knows what the leaders contribution was, and credit will always be given for it, there is no need to take it away from the team. Maybe this is a confidence issue.
With Manchester United, we know Alex Ferguson is the manager, we know he selected the team, the tactics and provided the motivation. Yet in the press interviews, he gives all of the credit to the players, it’s as if he wasn’t involved.
This gives great to motivation to team, as well reward, recognition and respect, and this leads to respect for the manager.
If the leader looks to take all of the credit, then effect is completely the opposite, but its amazing how often we see this happen. Nothing demotivates a team as much as the leader claiming it was all about them.
What mistakes do you see leaders frequently making? Which ones do you dislike the most.
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