Aug
11
A Business Week article lists the following 20 interesting bad habits, complied by executive coach Marshall Goldsmith, describing what hinder leaders from progressing into the executive suite of their organisations:
- Winning Too Much: The need to win at all costs and in all situations—when it matters, when it doesn’t, and when it’s totally beside the point.
- Adding Too Much Value: The overwhelming desire to add our two cents to every discussion.
- Passing Judgment: The need to rate others and impose our standards on them.
- Making Destructive Comments: The needless sarcasms and cutting remarks that we think make us sound sharp and witty.
- Starting with “No,” “But,” or “However”: The overuse of these qualifiers, which secretly say to everyone, “I’m right. You’re wrong.”
- Telling the World How Smart We Are: The need to show people we’re smarter than they think we are.
- Speaking When Angry: Using emotional volatility as a management tool.
- Negativity: The need to share our negative thoughts, even when we weren’t asked.
- Withholding Information: The refusal to share information in order to maintain an advantage over others.
- Failing to Give Proper Recognition: The inability to praise and reward.
- Claiming Credit We Don’t Deserve: The most annoying way to overestimate our contribution to any success.
- Making Excuses: The need to reposition our annoying behavior as a permanent fixture so people excuse us for it.
- Clinging to the Past: The need to deflect blame away from ourselves and onto events and people from our past; a subset of blaming everyone else.
- Playing Favorites: Failing to see that we are treating someone unfairly.
- Refusing to Express Regret: The inability to take responsibility for our actions, admit we’re wrong, or recognize how our actions affect others.
- Not Listening: The most passive-aggressive form of disrespect for colleagues.
- Failing to Express Gratitude: The most basic form of bad manners.
- Punishing the Messenger: The misguided need to attack the innocent, who are usually only trying to protect us.
- Passing the Buck: The need to blame everyone but ourselves.
- An Excessive Need to Be “Me”: Exalting our faults as virtues simply because they exemplify who we are.
Take the time to reflect on the above list. Which three of the above habits most describe habits that are holding you back? Make a decision to change them in the weeks that lie ahead. As John Maxwell reminds us “Leadership is developed daily, not in a day”. By working of removing bad habits daily, we become more effective leaders.
Technorati Tags: Leadership, Management, Career, Habits, Development, Business, HR, Growth
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6 Responses to “20 Bad Habits That Can Hold You Back from the Executive Suite”
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[...] Bendecido Mancha Categories: Church Leadership and Leadership Found this on the Practice of Leadership blog, a pretty definitive list of negative habits that will keep you from [...]
[...] post comes from The Practice of Leadership Blog, which continues to be one of my favorite blogs on [...]
Great checklist!
thanks for sharing
[...] Leadership’s goal is to provide vision and opportunities. In that light, it is more people oriented than management. Pay attention to your group in your next standup. Do you have any members - who are not necessarily management - that when they speak up, everybody strains to listen to? Do you have somebody who is respected simply for who he/she is? Is there somebody who takes time with other team members and attempts to grow their role and level of understanding in various areas? Do they provide direction for the team in respect to THE TEAM and not simply mandates? These folks are your natural leaders. They aren’t normally out to make it to the next level, aren’t highly protective of their knowledge or role in the organization, and are always looking out for others. They communicate well and aren’t afraid to deliver a negative message. Certainly, they avoid all these things. [...]
What a list! This some good “stuff.”
Thanks.
[...] or two that might be holding you back from that executive position you applied for recently? Check out this list and see. (Personally, I found myself guilty of the first two and will begin paying attention to [...]