12 Leadership Mea Culpas *

1. Focusing on low performers while neglecting high performers.
     Solution: Spend most of your development resource on "B" performers. Reward "As".
     Develop "Bs".

2. Declaring conclusions.  You've been mulling something over for a few days, and without                     including your team, you tell what you want, your conclusion.
     Solution: Engage people early and often. If you want them to buy in, they need to weigh in.

3. Getting lost in the weeds. In the weeds is good stress, lost in the weeds is bad stress and defeats         us.
     Solution: Reconnect with your "why" and mission. Seek advise from your sounding board.

4. Forgetting you intimidate people because of your position or title.
     Solution: Leaders are on a stage, empathize with those who follow you.

5. Believing all good things people tell you.
     Solution: Seek out  people who tell you the unvarnished truth, value them.
     (avoid the "Emperor New Clothes" stigma.)

6. Giving feedback only when things go wrong.
     Solution: Make it a point to reward what you want repeated.

7. Treating everyone the same. What inspires one, discourages another.
     Solution: Learn the values of your teammates. Utilize the Platinum Rule**.

8. Creating artificial urgency. 
     Solution: Don't pretend there's an emergency in order to fuel energy. Avoid the "crying wolf".             When everything is a priority, nothing is a priority.

9. Interrupting
    Solution: Shut-up if you tend to interrupt. Listen, learn, reply...in that order.

10. Relying on email when things get heated.
       Solution: Pick up the phone when things get hot. Better yet, show up in someone's doorway.

11.  Allowing people to talk theory rather than action in meetings.
        Solution: Ask, "Who does what by when", over and over.

12. Spending too much time talking about problems and not enough exploring options.
       Solution: Say, I hear what went wrong. What might we do about it.?" After the first suggestion            say, "What else?" two or three more times.


* Inspired by Leadership Freak

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