#Leadership: The 7 Habits Of Really Ineffective Managers…If You are an Expert on Everything & Never Wrong, you Prevent the Team Doing its Job.

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I thought it was about time I wrote a bestseller, but couldn’t come up with any very good ideas. Then I realised that I didn’t have to. I could hitch a ride on Stephen Covey’s “7 Habits of Highly Effective People.” It’s a great book, but Covey only covered half the topic. He talks about good habits, but someone needs to talk about the bad habits that get in the way, the ones that you need to get rid of as you develop Covey’s good ones.

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And this is where I have great expertise. I have been privileged (is that the right word?) to work with some of the world’s most useless, obstinate, short-sighted, value-destroying managers. I’ve been in situations where, if I’d had a number for a reliable hitman, I would have gone to the board for a budget and made that call.

 You see, I used to be a turnaround specialist. I was the guy they called when the previous guy had been found wanting and been fired. I met a lot of troubled companies, and noticed one very interesting thing. Some of them had been unlucky, in that a recession or sudden change in the market had caught them in a bad place, but there was always an element of rotten management involved.

So let me offer you the Seven Habits of Really Ineffective Managers, subtitle “They Made These Mistakes So That You Don’t Have To.” Avoid these seven and you will be doing well.

First habit: they have to be right. Always. About everything. I remember once, in casual conversation with a project manager, the question came up of which road it was that went from Derby to Stoke on Trent. I thought it was the A516. He thought it was the A50. The difference was, though, that he really cared about the answer. I was indifferent (I’ve been to Stoke once, and that was enough).

He, on the other hand, from his tone and body language, made it clear that he was ready for a big argument on the subject. I moved quickly to another topic. I checked a map later and it turned out, in the unlikely event that you care, that we were both half right. It’s the A516 as far as Uttoxeter, then the A50.

If he was so intent on being right even on this trivial, irrelevant, issue, what was he like on questions that mattered to the task at hand? You guessed it – a nightmare.

He had made two mistakes. The first was to attach his ego to be being right, and the second was to assume that the first answer that came into his head was right.

This habit is horribly damaging. It prevents you being an effective member of a team. The point of a team is that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts; team members cover each others’ weak spots and correct each others’ mistakes. If you are an expert on everything and never wrong, you prevent the team doing its job.

The antidote to this bad habit is simple. Practice saying two things:

“I think x is the case, but let me check..” and

“I might be wrong. ”

When did you last say anything like this? If your answer is “
can’t remember” or, even worse, “It never applies” then you know something is wrong.

Tomorrow: more bad habits from my Management Hall Of Infamy.

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Forbes.com | April 27, 2015 | Alastair Dryburgh