Leadership – at least, good leadership – is hard to come by. Leadership is a way of life, a characteristic – it’s not something that just comes with a fancy leadership title. We all know people who are leaders among the rank-and-file, and we know people in leadership positions who just don’t have what it takes to inspire people to succeed.

[Image courtesy of The Natural Step Canada from Flickr via a Creative Commons license]Good leaders are hard to find, and good leadership qualities are even harder. But Robert Pater of MoveSMART presented what good good leadership is not – and how we can all overcome these mistakes.

But perhaps the hardest question in regards to leadership is – what are the qualities of a good leader? Is there a common thread among them?

Well certainly there is something in common, but on the outside it’s hard to determine because some of the great leaders have very different personalities and leadership styles. But they have a way to be innovative, forward-thinking and positive and/or inspirational for their workers to drive them to do better. But what kind of leader are you, or what kind of leader do you work for? Recently, Robert Pater of MoveSMART published an article in the June issue of Professional Safety magazine writing about some leadership “mistakes” that he challenges us all to point out either in ourselves or in others. But this is not just an exercise in noting the negative leadership personalities, it’s also noting that these personality traits don’t have to be permanent, and there are steps to take to overcome them and develop more positive leadership habits.

Here is Pater’s list of 10 leadership “mistakes,” clues to each one and quick tips to change course:

  1. Arrogance. Clues: Everyone else needs to change; defensiveness when faced with any criticism; disrespect. Corrective steps: Take personal responsibility; learn from mistakes; don’t just have an open-door policy, go out and seek feedback from others – even the negative – and actually learn something from them rather than making it all personal.
  2. Distraction. Clues: Focused on the short-term; makes current crisis more important than long-term goals and objectives; can’t stay on topic in a meeting or conversation. Corrective steps: Consider making a new mistake; develop indicators that reveal positive progress toward a goal rather than derailment.
  3. Disconnection. Clues: Lack of communication with subordinates; not knowing workers’ issues and not asking questions to find out. Corrective steps: Go visit the workers by dropping in one in a while; attend worker meetings, even briefly; ask for feedback from workers and managers.
  4. Complacency. Clues: Status quo is fine; no belief in improving mediocre results; making excuses; not making plans or follow-through and charging others with the same crime. Corrective steps: Even if the status quo is easy, be willing to change it; look for new approaches and be willing to try them out; challenge everyone (even yourself) to do better than the past.
  5. Command and Assume. Clues: Seeks instant improvement, which means more directing than inviting; more telling and less listening; motivates via fea; support new actions blindly without undestanding  obstcles or issues that prevent success. Corrective steps: Listen and engage; Delegate and worry less about process to get the job done; speak about safety with specific anecdotes rather than generalities.
  6. Tunnel Vision. Clues: Considers safety only as preventive and not proactive; having expectations that are not realistic and/or not communicating said expectations; more blaming and less solving; more talk, less  lead-by-example. Corrective steps: Take a larger view, looking into other areas of the company as guidance; look for trends and take action when appropriate; talk about safety in the context of broad company goals and objectives.
  7. Getting in Your Own Way. Clues: Doing too much too soon; setting unrealistic expectations; taking actions that are actually too difficult; over-delegating to others, especially managers. Corrective steps: Make change easy and simple; Quickly and honestly seek and clarify and confusing messages; be quick to respond to questions or comments about safety; take small steps of improvement; encourage regular updates on existing projects to note progress.
  8. Not Using Leverage. Clues: Ineffective time management and delegation; Confusing logistics; withholding information or only giving superficial information that is adequate for your workers to execute what is needed. Corrective steps: Take steps to encourage others to be leaders; before making major changes, get feedback from all levels; communicate everything you can so that everyone knows what is happening; Work with other departments on large projects rather than getting into a competition.
  9. Ineffective Reinforcement. Clues: Ignoring or dismissing improvements; squashing changes through bad communication; encouraging or condoning actions like hiding injuries or incidents; focus more on motivation and inventive rather than actual training. Corrective steps: Allow for slow-downs in the short term while workers learn these new skills; remind of past emphasis in stead of on current agenda issues; reinforce individual workers with recognition and accolades than actual rewards.
  10. Lack of Zeal. Clues: Belief in logic and “common sense” will cause change on its own; focus on technique rather than emotional motivation t drive change. Corrective steps: Work on emotion; use personal stories about safety to drive home certain points, using the question, “what does safety mean to me?”; use positive motivation rather than ultimatums; Discontinue failing or ignored initiatives and use tnew ideas that will generate energy in the workplace.