GOOD LEADERS - WHAT MAKES THEM FAIL?.
Good leaders are usually associated with effectiveness. Traditionally, these leaders get the right things done in the right way. By adopting a simple code comprised of eight steps, they are able to increase their success. The eight steps include:.
Ask what needs to be done.
Ask what's right for the enterprise.
Develop action plans.
Own decisions and accept the associated responsibility and consequences.
Own and take responsibility for communications.
Become an opportunist instead of a defeatist.
Run productive meetings.
Remember there is no "I" in "Team".
But what happens when a good leader fails? Sydney Finkelstein, a professor of business at the Tuck School, identified seven habits of spectacularly unsuccessful executives. These seven habits include:.
1. Seeing themselves and their companies as dominating their environments.
2. Identifying so completely with the company that there is no clear boundary between their personal interests and their corporation's interests.
3. Thinking they have all the answers.
4. Ruthlessly eliminating anyone who is not 100 percent behind them.
5. Being consummate spokespersons, obsessed with the company's image.
6. Underestimating obstacles.
7. Stubbornly relying on what worked for them in the past.
Regardless of the events surrounding an executive's failure, executives fail because, for a variety of reasons, they behave inappropriately when events occur. These behaviors are due in part to the makeup of their personalities. Of the seven causes of failure identified by Sydney Finkelstein, five relate to how the executives see themselves and their thought processes, perceptions, and predispositions. In 2003 consultants David Dotlich and Peter Cairo identified eleven personality traits that cause good leaders to fail. The personality traits include:.
Arrogance.
Mischievousness.
Melodrama.
Eccentricity.
Volatility.
Passive resistance.
Excessive caution.
