One minute a business leader is master of the
universe, and the next no one returns his or her calls. How can you avoid this
sort of nightmare?
While there are no guarantees in life, there are
classic errors that cause smart people to self-destruct. If you avoid these
traps, you can protect your career and preserve your ability to be effective.
These principles don't just apply to CEOs. If you
are hiring others, you have some degree of power over them. If you purchase
goods from other businesses, you have a degree of influence over those vendors.
But, yes, the more responsibilities you take on, the more these traps need to
concern you.
1.The
"ego-driven blind spot" trap: Like the
rest of us, you are not perfect. One of the biggest challenges to acquiring
power is that fewer and fewer people are willing to give you objective
feedback.
If you suddenly are praised as a genius, your
internal alarms should sound. You're not smarter than ever, you're just surrounded
by people who dare not point out weak points in your reasoning. Everyone has
flaws, and it is crucial that you both understand and monitor your own
weaknesses.
Set up systems that enable you to detect potential
dangers along the paths you are pursuing:
·
Encourage employees to submit anonymous feedback.
·
From time to time, hold meetings at which the sole
purpose of all gathered is to play devil's advocate with regards to your
existing strategies.
·
Foster a culture in which it is a badge of pride to
"beat the control," which means putting forth a strategy that can be
proven better than the existing one.
·
Engage objective and independent observers whose
role is to second guess you. Even if 90% of the time they can't convince you to
change course, those occasions on which they prevent you from veering off the
road will be invaluable.
2. The
"repeat past successes" trap: Successful
people tend to repeat the strategies that made them successful. While this
often makes sense for a time, the only constant in our world is change. It is
difficult to name a company that has had the same level of success for ten
years' running. Likewise, over a five to ten year period, your access to
information and the sophistication of your technology changes radically; you
have to adapt as these fundamentals shift.
I'm not suggesting you follow every fad. Hype and
overblown promises abound. But never stop testing your own skills and
strategies, even in ways that may seem silly to you. For example, I'd encourage
even top executives to invest a little time in learning to code. You are not
going to become a programmer, but you won't be able to understand the detail
that underlies most businesses unless you understand the details involved in
programming.
3. The "use power too personally" trap: It would be futile to count the number of leaders who fell from grace because they crossed a line and used power to have an affair or otherwise feed their own desire for pleasure. This may be the biggest trap of all.
If you want to not only maintain a successful
career, but also help lead your company in the right direction, then use power
for the benefit of others:
·
Empower your employees, so that they can delight
your customers.
·
Enrich your investors, by viewing their faith in
you as a solemn responsibility.
·
Enhance the communities in which your organization
operates, by understanding that your success is only sustainable if theirs is,
too.
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