The 3 Most Dangerous Mistakes Leaders Make
Patrick Lencioni is one of the favorite repeat speakers at the Global Leadership Summit -- so glad to sit at his feet again. Patrick talked about the three most dangerous mistakes leaders make:
1) Leaders who are leaders for the wrong reason (notoriety, fame, money, titles, benefits, etc.).
- Kids growing up wanting to be known as a leader, not necessarily because they want to make a difference.
- Good reason to be a leader: Sacrifice yourself for the good of others even when you don't know if or when there will be any return on your investment.
- If you want to be a leader for yourself, you will leave a trail of tears behind.
- Patrick: "I'm tired of hearing about "servant leadership" -- because I don't think there is any other kind."
- The only real payoff for leadership is eternal.
2) Leaders who fail to embrace vulnerability
- The axiom "don't let them see you sweat" is not true leadership.
- You can't be too vulnerable as a leader. People expect us to be competent, but they don't want us to be perfect, they want us to be human.
- When you can be genuine and naked with people, they will walk through walls for you.
3) We make leadership too important
- Our identity can get wrapped up in being a leader--and this is a problem when it crowds out our higher identities as a child of God, a parent or spouse.
- We should say to our family: "Do you think my job or my employees are more important than you?"
- We get more positive feedback from our employees than we do from our kids which makes it easy to mess up our priorities.
The common denominator of these three mistakes is pride.