9 Undeniable Reasons Managers Crash and Burn

9 Undeniable Reasons Managers Crash and Burn

Occasional failure is useful if you acknowledge it, fix it, learn from it, and move on. Persistent, recurring failure is not an option.

Consistently do only one of these nine behaviors and you’ll eventually fail as a manager. Do several of them and you’ll quickly crash and burn.

9 Sure-Fire Ways to Fail:

  1. Fail to build trust and integrity.
  2. Focus on the wrong things. Managing is about results. Things that matter are things that directly or indirectly fuel results.
  3. Don’t model or build accountability. Point fingers or make excuses.
  4. Fail to consistently reinforce what’s important. Do you have a core performance message?
  5. Overrely on consensus. Are your decisions delayed or watered down because you overemphasize consensus?
  6. Focus on being popular. Does a desire to be liked have a negative effect on results?
  7. Get caught up in your self-importance. Do you have a high need to gain admiration, be in the spotlight, and get public accolades?
  8. Put your head in the sand. Do you react poorly to bad news, hide it, or dismiss it?
  9. Fix problems not causes. Do you tend to fix problems with Band-Aid solutions rather than seek and eradicate root causes, even if they lie in another area?

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Email may be a reason you focus on the wrong things.

5 Ways to Make email work:

  1. E-mail should bring closure to work, not create more work.
  2. Turn off audible signals that an email has arrived.
  3. Pretend the recipient isn’t going to open the email. Get to the point in the subject line or within the preview pane.
  4. Don’t CC the world.
  5. Sending an email doesn’t transfer responsibility.
  6. Don’t spend more than five minutes dealing with any email.

Which of the 9 reasons managers fail do you find most challenging?

How can managers overcome one of these critical failure points?