Top Ten Mistakes Pt 2

Hans Finzel wrote a powerful little book in 1994 called “The Top Ten Mistakes Leaders Make.” It was relevant when I first read it a decade ago. I recently pulled the book off the shelf and began to sift through the contents - I quickly realized that we continue to face many if the same pitfalls as leaders in the 21^st century. I decided to mix some of my ideas with the major concepts presented by Dr. Finzel in a two part blog. The first submission explored the first five mistakes. With no surprise this second part will reflect on the final five problems defined in Finzel's book. If you want a quick and enjoyable read on leadership from a Christian perspective, I would recommend this insightful and humorous 200-page book.

Mistake #6 – Dirty Delegation. In the introduction to this chapter Finzel makes two powerful statements: “Overmanaging is one of the great cardinal sins of poor leadership,” and “Nothing frustrates those who work for you more than sloppy delegation with too many strings attached.” Dirty delegation often appears in one of three ways. First, it can take the form of micromanaging. Assigning a task and then looking over the shoulder of the new owner of the task. Micromanaging is like having your boss stand over you while you are typing a document pointing out every time you misspell a word or making editorial changes before you have had opportunity to proofread your work. Second, dirty delegation can take the form of giving responsibility without any authority to make decisions. You are to plan next month's orientation of new employees, but you are required to seek the boss's approval on every detail of the plan. Third, dirty delegation can also consist of dumping responsibility with no direction of accountability. The new leader has been given the task and is left alone to sink or swim without help, insight, advice, or deadlines.

Mistake #7 – Communication Chaos. You would think in the world of technology with email, twitter, facebook, and texting, that we would be a well oiled communication machine, but we are not. Technology has just given us more means to transmit more messages in a shorter amount of time than ever before. That empowerment causes us to be overwhelmed at time with strains and threads of communication links. It also give more opportunities to fail in our communication attempts, more avenues to miscommunicate, and more holes through which meaningful messages can be lost. One day I was concentrating on responding to my emails. For every one email I was able to answer, three new ones appeared in my inbox. I was further behind at the end of the day than I was at the beginning even though I worked the entire day trying to communicate. Once an email is sent the sender thinks that you have read it, formulated a response, and have the answer somewhere in cyberspace. If they do not receive an answer within a few hours, they feel rejected, angry, or frustrated that you are not a good communicator.

Mistake #8 – Missing the Clues of Corporate Culture. Establishing core values and defining the vision for the organization are absolute keys for effective leadership. Without the flags of the institution clearly defined and flying high as banners from every flagpole of the company, employees will find themselves questioning the identity of the organization. Finzel says that corporate value statements are “like glue...they help the leaders hold an organization together; they are like a magnet...they attract newcomers as members, employees, customers, or donors; they are like a ruler....by which a leader can measure how his or her group is doing” (p. 143).

Mistake #9 – Success without Successors. Let me share some bullet statements provided by the book without much commentary:

“Pride tightens the grip of leadership; humility relaxes and lets go” (p.157).

“Letting go of leadership is like sending your children away to college; It hurts, but has to be done” (p. 157).

“Leaders who stay too long do much more damage than those who don't stay long enough” (p.159).

“Organizations live and die on the basis of their flow of new leadership talent” (p. 161).

“How we pass that torch might just be the ultimate measure of our leadership success” (p. 177).

Mistake #10 – Failure to Focus on the Future. Vision is at the core of my definition of leadership. Leadership is the dynamic, interactive process of creating, communicating, and transforming vision into reality. I blog often about vision. I feel so strongly that vision is absolutely key to the health of an organization and the speed in which that organization is moving toward a meaningful goal. Finzel provides a quote from T.E. Lawrence that I have written in my treasure book of leadership gold:

All men dream; but not equally.

Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds

Awake to find that it was vanity;

But dreamers of day are dangerous men,

That they may act their dreams with open eyes to make it possible.

Ten deadly mistakes, any one of which can collapse an entire organization or destroy an individual leader. Ten pools of quicksand looming to suck the life and energy from effective leaders. Ten cliffs to avoid at all costs. Lord, help me to walk carefully and seek forgiveness when I fall.

Finzel, H. (1994). The top ten mistakes leaders make. Wheaton, Ill: Victor Books.