Book Review: The Top Ten Mistakes Leaders Make

(Long review)

Summary: Hans Finzel, past President and CEO of WorldVenture, currently President of HDLeaders. This edition is an update of the original book written in the 1990s. He discusses the problems caused by these top ten mistakes and then talks about how to avoid them. Easily one of the most readable leadership books that I have read. Part of its value is that it’s drawn from Finzel’s experiences in leadership. Highly recommended.
From the Introduction: "Leadership can be dangerous. To understand this, study world history and the lives of great and terrible leaders and what they accomplished through others. We who are in leadership can, on one hand, move men, women, and mountains for tremendous good. On the other hand, we hold the power to do irreparable damage to our followers by the mistakes we make.” (Loc. 98)
Mistakes (chapters):

• Top–down attitude
• Putting paperwork before peoplework
• The absence of affirmation
• No room for mavericks
• Dictatorship in decision making (I know all the answers)
• Dirty delegation
• Communication chaos — overcommunicate
• Missing the clues of corporate culture
• Success without successors
• Failure to focus on the future

Best Chapter — Chapter 8, Missing the Clues of Corporate Culture, and Chapter 10, Failure to Focus on the Future.
It’s really hard to choose best chapters because they are all good. These 2 chapters, however, speak most directly to my current situation having just moved into a new leadership role. Chapter 8 on corporate culture practically defines culture as “the way we do things around here”. Reading the chapter, I realized that both leaders and followers have to deal with multiple cultures, not just their organization’s culture: birth family, in-law family, regional culture (North, South, Midwest, etc.), organizational culture. International workers add a new country’s culture and, in Africa, tribal cultures. As a new leader of an existing group of teams, I’m having to learn not only new country and tribal cultures but also learn the culture of this group of teams.
Chapter 10 speaks to where I think I need to focus my primary attention in this particular leadership role. Given the realities of changes in my home culture and the financial constraints of our overall organization, I need to look 5-10+ years ahead and lead for those changes.
Best Quotes:

• ...people fall into leadership more by accident than by design. (Loc. 120)
• After falling into leadership, we tend to do what comes naturally—we “wing it.” And that’s what gets leaders into trouble, because good leadership practice is often the opposite of conventional wisdom. (Loc. 123)
• This leader, like most, had no clue as to how much power he wielded over his subordinates. Great leaders forget what it feels like to be led. (Loc. 156)
• Jesus spent more time touching people and talking to them than doing any other action. His focus was not on words, it was on compassion. (Loc. 699)
• A person or a number of key people with whom one has had real-life personal contact has been the primary change agent in the person’s life...are influenced by many factors in small ways and at a distance, but the most profound changes in our lives come through people whom we have had coffee with, roomed with, gone to a game with, played with, worshipped with, prayed with. (Loc. 732)
• The greater the leadership role, the more important peoplework is…. (Loc. 843)
• Organizational researchers have been telling us for years that affirmation motivates people much more than financial incentives…. (Loc. 865)
• Leadership is inherently about effecting change in order to obtain some desired future condition that would not otherwise happen. Most people want progress as long as they do not have to change very much to get it. (Loc. 1129)
• Learn to recognize truly useful mavericks. Some people just love to complain, but there are useful mavericks who do not just cause trouble, but rather truly want to make a difference. We need to create space in our organizations for these beneficial mavericks to flourish. (Loc. 1301)
• We know by looking at history that the greatest strides forward in any field usually come from the “radical fringe,” as opposed to the institutional core…. (Loc. 1363)
• The greatest ideas bubble up from the workers. “They will come from you, not from me,”…. (Loc. 1358)
• “I’m a captain, I don’t gripe to my men. Gripes go up. Not down.” (Tom Hanks character in Saving Private Ryan) (Loc. 1440)
• No one likes to live under dictators—they take all the fun out of life and work! (Loc. 1607)
• Being head beagle would be a lot easier if we could learn to spread out the work to other competent workers around us. (Loc. 1656)
• Our goal is to develop new leaders who will eventually replace us, so we shouldn’t worry about others having skills better than our own. (Loc. 1681)
• FOUR QUESTIONS EVERY FOLLOWER ASKS: 1. What am I supposed to do? 2. Will you let me do it? 3. Will you help me when I need it? 4. Will you let me know how I’m doing? —Dr. Lorne Sonny, The Business Ministry Journal (Loc. 1744)
• An important principle that many leaders stumble on is the need to recognize that different kinds of followers need different styles of supervision. (Loc. 1810)
• “If everything seems under control, you are not going fast enough.” —Mario Andretti (Loc. 1854)
• I have an imaginary sign over my doorway as you look out of my office that reads, “Did they take their monkey with them?” Don’t do other people’s work for them. That is my natural temptation, like when I ask my children to do a job that I would normally do myself. I must cultivate greater independence and responsibility in both of us by giving them a job and allowing them do it. (Loc. 1858)
• When left in the dark, people tend to dream up wild rumors. (Loc. 1915)
• As organizations grow, the original group of founders can become an inside elite. Since they were there from the beginning, they have the most information and power. Newcomers feel left out and in the dark. I recall one of the new employees in our group complaining about the lack of information in this vivid fashion: “I feel like I’m living on a mushroom farm—I’m left completely in the dark and fed manure from time to time.” That was a revealing statement of the kind of pain that can be caused by poor communication. (Loc. 1971)
• There is never a time when more in-house communication is needed than when a new leader arrives on the scene. People need to know what to expect of their new leader. If you are that person, make sure you overcommunicate as an obsession. (Loc. 2040)
• Never assume that anyone knows anything. This is a core leadership principle. We can never communicate enough in our organizations. (Loc. 1934)
• We never communicate enough, and we usually communicate way less than we think we do. It is a rare organization that has been found guilty of over-communicating. (Loc. 2253)
• When left in the dark, people tend to dream up wild rumors. This is where human nature always shows its dark side. People tend to think the worst of each other, instead of the best. Rumors destroy morale, and are best grown in the fertile soil of a communication-less organization. It is the job of effective leaders to build communication bridges throughout their organization and make sure that people are talking to each other. (Loc. 2261)
• I define corporate culture very simply as “the way we do things around here.” Or to make the definition a bit more formal: “An organization’s corporate culture is the way insiders behave based on the values and group traditions they hold.” (Loc. 2298)
• Corporate culture is a powerful force. It can at times be so strong that people develop a religious attitude toward their company, so devoted they are to its culture. (Loc. 2328)
• One of the keys to a successful leadership transition is to learn to hold our positions loosely. The tighter the grip, the more pride and the harder it becomes to let go at any stage. A loose grip is a humble grip, an attitude that knows our finitude and dispensability. (Loc. 2965)
• To survive and grow, a movement such as the Christian faith must go at least four generations: Paul (the first generation) mentored Timothy (second), who was in turn was asked to mentor reliable men (third), who would be qualified to teach others (fourth)…. (Loc. 2993)
• A leader’s concentration must not be on the past nor on the present, but on the future. (Loc. 3092)
• Leroy Eims, “A leader is one who sees more than others see, who sees farther than others see, and who sees before others do” (Be the Leader You Were Meant to Be). (Loc. 3134)
• ...our past successes can be our greatest roadblocks to future accomplishments, because what worked in that foreign country of the past will not necessarily work today. (Loc. 3138)
• The tyranny of the urgent always fights against our planning and thinking time, but if we don’t make the time to plan for the future, we will be its victims. We will develop a style of reactionary leadership. What is needed is proactive leadership that anticipates the future. (Loc. 3219)
• Leaders ask, “Where are we going next, and why are we going there?” Managers ask, “How will we get there?” (Loc. 3233)
• ...the world outside is changing; the international community we want to touch is changing; our new workforce is different, with different expectations; and our donor base is changing dramatically…. (Loc. 3281)
• Creating vision and direction for the future is one of the primary responsibilities of leadership. The leader must plan for the future. He or she must direct or head the team in developing organizational goals, plans, and strategies that flow out of a crisp purpose or vision statement. (Loc. 3298)
• “In times of change, learners inherit the earth, while the learned find themselves beautifully equipped, to deal with a world that no longer exists.” —Robin Cook, Abduction (Loc. 3311)
• The past is finished. Whatever happened there cannot be undone. The present is being dealt with on the basis of yesterday’s plans. That leaves only the future as the focus of an effective leader. To neglect the future is the biggest mistake a leader can make. (Loc. 3394)

Best Take-Aways:

• ...“communication linkages.” Every time I make a phone call or write a letter or make a decision, I have to ask, “What people are affected by this decision/letter/memo/directive? What are the linkages?” (Loc. 2011)
• Learn the culture of where I am (Chapter 8)
• Focus on the future: “…the past is finished…the present is being dealt with on the basis of yesterday’s plans…That leaves only the future….” (Loc. 3394)