I think one mistake is not taking a moment to listen and really pay attention to what is going on in the moment. That second when you ignore queues that are there is when you’ll go down the path of making a decision that could have detrimental results.
Not communicating enough and not communicating the right things. Any leadership mistakes that I would like to see changed usually revolve around this central theme. My husband and I were having a discussion about this the other night, and he said the one thing he would have done differently in his work is to communicate more, better, and at the right times.
I think it goes back to not communicating. With a lack of communication there’s room for feelings of deceit. Even if a leader is making good decisions based on good information, others can misinterpret that or feel there’s another agenda if the communication isn’t good. Even if it’s scary to communicate a problem, it’s usually best to do so.
Prematurely rushing to judgment. A certain mark of hubris is the leader who assumes he has all of the answers and plunges ahead with a decision that turns out to be ill-timed or fundamentally wrong. Emerging sages describe this kind of leader in various ways:
Download Article 1K ClubI see a lot of school leaders reacting in the moment rather than taking time to reflect. There is a tendency to be on the steamroller of decision-making without contemplation or follow-through.
One of the most common mistakes is judging people before actually having conversations with them. Just accepting someone else’s perceptions and biases and holding it against a person, without taking the time to formulate their own opinion, is detrimental. We should take the time to look inside a person before reaching conclusions about them.
