What comes to mind when you hear the words leadership mistake? Maybe you thought of a bad decision by an executive that costs the company millions of dollars. Or perhaps you thought of a poor personnel decision that has caused dysfunction on your team. You might even have thought about a mistake you recently made in leading a project.
Often, we don’t consider our own leadership mistakes, yet, these mistakes tend to happen more frequently and can have the longest impact on our success as a leader. If you want to become a better leader, you need to eliminate the most frequent leadership mistake leaders make. What is that mistake? It’s probably not what you think.
The most frequent mistake a leader can make is being insecure.
An insecure leader wants everyone to think they are the smartest one in the room. They are always looking for an opportunity to show they know more than others on the team, and they are constantly trying to prove that they belong in the job.
If you’re the kind of leader who struggles with insecurity, here’s some truth for you: if no one thought you could do the job, you would not have been appointed to a leadership role.
So, what should you do? Start by asking others for their input, and then give them credit when you use their ideas. When you celebrate another person’s idea, you gain that person’s trust. Confident leaders enjoy showing how others contributed to the success of the team.
Recognizing your team members is the best way to ensure they will continue to share ideas. Then, you and your team can build on those great ideas together, and you’ll be known as a leader people want to follow.
Want more insight on leadership? Check out the David Novak Leadership Leadership Podcasts. You’ll hear from some of the best leaders in the country as they share about mistakes they’ve made, how they became successful, and you’ll even get tips on how you can grow as a leader.
Recent Leadership Posts
[recent_posts count=”4″ offset=”1″ category=”blog”]
2 replies on “The Biggest Leadership Mistake You Can Make”
Great article! Thank you David Novak and team for delivering such dynamic, powerful and insightful content. I am certainly enjoying reading, listening and learning through oGoLEAD.
First, I appreciate your candor about your leadership style and impact. I was listening to your podcast. Every leader should be grounded from the Heart throw in some wisdom and recognition, now you have a solid foundation for a company.
In these economic pressures, how do you lead with heart when “down sizing” is happening? How do you reassure your employees? One thing I know, security is a basic human need. How do you bring the best out of an employees when they are always worried about their job?