The seven deadly (leadership) sins to avoid

Clive Chandler on the no-nos that will impact on your effectiveness as a leader.

I’ve recently had to put together a series of talks on leadership as part of our continuing education program. I found mountains of material on how to lead: techniques for communicating effectively with teams, methods of managing, the habits of highly effective people, emotional intelligence… the usual stuff.

While that research was a good exercise, it all became a bit noisy, which made me step back and reflect on my experience, both as a team member and as a leader. What really makes a good leader? What are the key things a leader should be on guard against?

The conclusion I reached was that the biggest failures you can make are not about how you manage your team — they are about how you manage yourself. Below are the seven biggest leadership failures to be wary of.

1. Being overly self-protective
Blaming others when things go wrong is bad, but refusing to own up to your own mistakes is fatal. If you fall into this trap, ask yourself: what am I afraid of? If you’re afraid that people discovering you have made a mistake might hurt your credibility, covering your own rear end will make sure of it. It also has negative ramifications for the team, creating a work environment where people watch their own backs instead of each other’s.

I am candid with my team, telling them often that in my 30 years of experience I have probably made every mistake it’s possible to make — and that I continue to make them. It’s not about being perfect — no one is — it’s about how you recover
that matters.

2. Being uncooperative
Good listening skills and patience are fundamental to leadership roles. Being stubborn doesn’t help people learn, and it doesn’t make you a good leader to be inflexible. All it shows is that you don’t value other people’s opinions. You might still be right at the end of the discussion, but you have to be willing to have a discussion.

3. Irritability
As a leader, you have to remember that your presence is supposed to be a benefit, not a liability. Be aware of your mood. Yes, you have responsibilities which can be a burden at times. Yes, you will get stressed occasionally. So take a deep breath before you walk into the office. Smile. It matters.

4. Being egocentric
If you want to boast about an achievement, do it to your family and friends. In the office, all wins belong to the team. If you want to crow about your expertise, you might want to reconsider that, too. Knowing all the answers doesn’t train your team to think, it trains them to come to you whenever they have a problem. It might make you feel good, but it isn’t leadership. Turn the focus back on them. Guide them through some open-ended questions so they get to the answer. It’s not about you.

5. Exhibiting ruthless or unethical behaviours
Ruthless seems like an extreme word. I’m sure you’re saying: “I’m not guilty of this one. I just want my team to respect me, and so I’m occasionally hard on them.” Suppose a team member makes a mistake, and you pull them off the project and reassign them to a menial task. What does that show your team about the use of managerial power? Will you really get the best out of any of them after that, or will they just fly under the radar to avoid your notice? Is that respect? Or have you just killed your team’s performance?

As regards ethics, we all know we should run our businesses above board. But unethical practices can simply be taking your team out for drinks on the company credit card when you know the policy says don’t do it without approval. Your team knows it, too. It’s not cool. It’s damaging and it’ll come back to bite you.

6. Being overly charismatic
Some people really have the “X factor” – the air changes when they walk into a room. If you are one of these people, be careful. While your team will no doubt look up to you, they will quite happily stay in your shadow unless you dim the lights and let someone else on the stage.

Practice not being the centre of a conversation group. See if you can get your colleagues to talk about their opinions on the news of the day before you offer yours. Maybe don’t offer yours at all, just discuss the other people’s ideas. Let junior team members chair meetings. Don’t say anything in the meeting unless it’s really needed. Be there to support them – don’t steal the show. 

7. Being overly ambitious
It’s fine to want to advance in the company. But when you put your speaking engagements ahead of project commitments, when you join another board or association so that your CV looks impressive instead of passing some of these opportunities to a team member for the growth of their career, when people can tell that your focus is not on the company’s/team’s success, your status as a leader will be diminished.

Clive Chandler is director, project management, at McLachlan Lister, part of Hill International, based in Sydney. His colleague Mary Casey was co-author