First, I want to thank everyone for their responses to my question about the most common mistakes leaders make.  I cannot say that I got enough responses to make the conclusions statistically significant, however, there were some consistent messages and some interesting points to think about.  There were several themes, so I am going to take them one at a time and do one post on each.

Here is one subject that I found particularly interesting.  There were numerous responses all along the same line.  Leaders tend to take employees opinions for granted.  They do not seem to pay enough attention to how employees interpret and react to their decisions and actions.  Leaders do not seem to realize that employees are watching them all the time and forming opinions about them based on their decisions, actions and attitudes.  And, those opinions have a direct effect on their motivation and performance.

Wow!  How true.  Think about that.  Everything you do, as a leader, is being watched and analyzed far more than you would imagine.  The interpretations people make of what they see has a direct impact on what they think of you and, more importantly, on their motivation.  To make matters worse, many employees will be drawing those conclusions without having complete knowledge of all the issues you are dealing with and the complexities of them.  Their conclusions are likely to be founded on some inaccurate assumptions.  It puts a lot of pressure on you to be aware at all times of how your actions are being perceived and interpreted…and managing that.

The areas identified as those in which employees tend to be most critical are ethics and accountability…and these are fundamental to trust.  If they do not see you taking responsibility for the performance of the organization, they will not trust you.  If they see anything that causes them to question your ethics, they will not trust you.  If they interpret your actions as being motivated by a personal agenda or self-interest, they will not trust you.  Without their trust you will not gain their commitment to you as the leader and to the goals and objectives of the business.  You will not get the best that they have to offer in terms of their performance – not just in the conduct of their daily tasks, but in terms of their creativity, innovation, and initiative.  What a loss!

My conclusion is that this group of comments focuses on trust, and that among the most common mistakes leaders make are: (1) failing to recognize the importance of trust, the fragility of it, and the tenuous nature of it, and (2) failing to take the appropriate steps to build it and maintain it. 

Lots to learn from that.  Put yourself in the shoes of your employees and recall how your commitment, motivation and performance wane when you lose trust.

As an aside…I have spoken to a former professor of mine who spent many years teaching Ethics.  I am going to try to interview him for a more complete perspective on the whole subject.  Another post…