5 common leadership mistakes and how to avoid them

Photo by Zhu Liang 

According to recent research by McKinsey, 83% of leaders think they are unprepared for their new roles. That fully reflects my own observations. Organisations assume leaders are born, not made, and often make very little effort to help people understand what is required of them and how to shine in a new role.

All of the following mistakes come from not recognising that you need to adapt your tactics - either with yourself or others -  when you take on more responsibility:

1. Being too controlling - this comes from a fear that no one can do as good a job as you can, so you tend to just take on the work and not worry about the impact it's having on you or the team. The long term outcome from following this strategy is you feeling resentful and disappointment with your colleagues and them also feeling judged and much less likely to offer to take on anything that has the potential to disappoint you in the future.
   
   Whats the answer? The message you are sending loud and clear to the team is that you don’t think they are up to it. I get that they may not be your dream team but you may surprise yourself by trusting them more and seeing how it goes. People are different when they feel heard and trusted. Start by giving them easy tasks and build both your and their confidence in what they are capable of.
   
   
2. Pushing too hard - As its retirement looms, stories about staff at Microsoft working so hard to produce the Internet Explorer browser that they sacrificed their lives to achieve that seem to be circulating at the moment. There must be millions of identical stories from millions of less famous projects because our culture values short term success over long term outcomes. I once worked somewhere that had “whatever it takes” as the office hours in my contract. I was young enough to not think that was pretty outrageous!
   
   My suggestions? To start with, never ask someone to do something or put in the hours that you wouldn’t have liked to be asked to do when you were in their position. And as a follow up, think about your motivation vs their motivation. Are you asking them to burn the midnight oil so that you look good and get the promotion? Is that really OK with you?
   
   
3. Shiny object syndrome - I think it’s tempting for leaders to believe that a new tool or strategy or even a new team structure will shake out all the old problems and let the organisation (and the leader, of course) ride the easy path to glory. Sadly it never happens. I recently worked somewhere that thought that robots were the answer. I think they got sold some and are still trying to work out where to put the batteries in.
   
   My advice here? Don’t forget that, while the ‘how’ changes with technological progress, the ‘what’ rarely does. Humans evolve very slowly and not all at the same time. Jumping to the new flashy thing seems fun but, unless its a medical breakthrough, its rarely going to be as effective as putting in the hard yards to iron out the fundamental problems that need addressing.
   
   
4. Being too pernickety - Winston Churchill got it right when he said "Perfection is the enemy of progress.”. It’s super easy to get so caught up inhaling everything perfect, that nothing is ever ready. Perfectionists drive everyone, themselves included, totally mad.
   
   You might like to take a tip from the tradition of Persian carpet weavers who make sure there is a flaw in the carpet pattern in recognition that only Allah/God is capable of making something perfect. Another suggestion would be to define the must-haves (spelling, branding, etc) and don’t sweat the rest because no one is looking at it as critically as you are.
   
   
5. Saying yes too much - This one is a killer! Saying ‘yes’ is often what helps us make progress, and over time, we learn to do it as a default. As you make progress in your career, and take on more and more responsibility, this turns out to be less of an effective strategy because, at some point, you will not be able to deliver on all of your commitments. And if you continue to say ‘yes’ and not deliver, you will appear to be less and less capable which is exactly the opposite of what you were trying to achieve, right?
   
   To get on top of saying 'yes' by default, you need to take a moment to think through the impact of either taking the work on - OR - not taking it on. Asking for more detail about what the work might entail is a good way to buy a few moments to chew it over. You might find that saying yes is not automatically the best answer for you - or for them. 
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I hope you have found this helpful. I’d love to hear which of these or other things are getting in the way of your success. Share in the comments or, if you want to talk about it, get in touch!