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Common Mistakes Leaders Make

If there is any one topic covered extensively in books, magazines, and podcasts, it would be leadership. This isn’t particularly surprising given how important leadership is to almost any and every endeavor. From sports to business to relationships, the success of almost anything depends on great leadership. There are also some critical mistakes almost all … Continued
Kimberly Pilla

Kimberly Pilla

2 Min Read

Common Mistakes Leaders Make - Kimberly Pilla

If there is any one topic covered extensively in books, magazines, and podcasts, it would be leadership. This isn’t particularly surprising given how important leadership is to almost any and every endeavor. From sports to business to relationships, the success of almost anything depends on great leadership. There are also some critical mistakes almost all leaders make along the way. Here are three common mistakes leaders make.

Refuse to Admit Mistakes

Many aspiring leaders operate under the mistaken assumption that admitting wrong shows weakness, which is to be avoided. In truth, it takes a great deal of strength to admit when you are wrong and will tend to garner great respect and admiration. In addition, you can’t grow as a leader and make better choices if you don’t even admit to making poor choices in the first place. No one starts as a great leader. They become great leaders over time, generally after making a lot of mistakes. However, you can’t learn from those mistakes if you won’t even admit to having made them in the first place.

Make Wishy-Washy Decisions

One of the most painful realities of leadership is that leaders will often have to make critical decisions based on little to no information. Great leaders wait as long as they can to make those vital decisions to give themselves as much time as possible to gather as much information as they can. However, when crunch time comes, great leaders make a firm decision and stand by it, come what may. There may be nothing worse than a leader that can’t make a decision or keeps changing their mind. It’s tough to follow a person who keeps changing direction on a dime.

Be Distant and Unavailable

Most leaders are painfully aware of how ill-equipped they are to lead. Leadership is far more often simply a matter of willingness to lead than skill at doing so. Many leaders make the mistake of trying to distance themselves to avoid having someone discover their feet of clay. Leaders are not gods; they are simply fallible human beings that have chosen to take on the tremendously difficult task of leadership.