To be an awesome leader avoid these 7 mistakes.

The buffalo was considered sacred by original Americans. Known as a life building force, the buffalo provided all good things necessary for survival and bestowed great healing powers. Great leaders literally revered the buffalo because of its ability to provide for their people. 

Unfortunately, over the past several decades we’ve witnessed massive companies crumble as leaders who lack integrity let their ego dominate every decision. The result, a plethora of problems that contaminate work environments with catastrophic consequences.

Unfortunately, this problem effects good people that carelessly succumb to bad habits that cannibalize their efforts to provide effective leadership.

This insidious monster incubates slowly, then culminates into a prolific problem that can only be appeased with; praise, recognition, greed and “group think”.  

“The integrity of a man is not in how much wealth he acquires, but in his integrity and his ability to affect those around him”. – Bob Marley

Dr. Fred Kiel dug deep into understanding leadership integrity in his book, Return on Character. His research is fascinating! Dr. Kiel collected data on 84 CEOs, then compared it to employee insight which graded CEO performance based on company performance.

Dr. Kiel discovered CEOs with High Integrity scores enjoyed average annual returns of 9.4%. Low Integrity CEOs had an average yield of just 1.9%. In addition, employee engagement averaged 26% higher in healthy organizations led by CEOs with “high integrity”.

High-Integrity CEOs have humility and spend little time contemplating compensation and recognition. Ironically, they get paid more and enjoy more success than Low Integrity CEOs.

The evidence is clear.  CEOs with integrity make an enormous difference. 

Integrity is doing the right thing, even when no one is watching. – C.S. Lewis

Each leader has the responsibility to “fine tune” their integrity. Many “well intended” leaders tumble into traps that can easily be prevented. By recognizing these traps leaders can operate with optimum integrity!

Here's a few things that can help.

Create an open culture of honest feedback. It’s very easy for leaders to adopt the idea that each decision requires their consent.  It’s a belief system based on to the idea of “supremacy”. Effective leaders appreciate the need to elicit honest feedback, encourage criticism and insist on critical questioning. In fact, they demand it!

Create an open culture of accountability. What do Politicians and many CEOs have in common? They often refuse to be accountable for their mistakes. Avoiding accountability has severe implications. Anybody that can’t be firm when it’s obvious something needs to stop, isn’t really a leader. Effective leaders absorb the blame but celebrate success together with their team.

Create a culture of high self-awareness. Many leaders believe they possess emotional intelligence. Ironically, many lack self-awareness. It’s not intentional, they just fail to see what everyone else sees. Research shows leaders aren’t alone, 36% of all people lack accurate self-appraisal.

Create a culture of open communication. Most leaders believe they possess great communication skills. Unfortunately, their communication is focused in one direction. Many leaders believe they are approachable and easily accessible. When leaders don’t provide context and specify goals it’s easy for people to be uncertain, which leaves people contemplating if promotion or termination is imminent.

Create a culture of firm boundaries with poor performers. Many leaders truly do have big hearts and stumble when it’s time to be firm. Pity, conflict aversion and inability to make tough choices immobilize many leaders from making good decisions. Compassion is great, but assembling the right team requires removing the weakest link.

Create a culture of focus. When leaders get distracted with extinguishing small fires, they fail to focus on what truly matters. That includes their people! When you don’t put people first, problems are inevitable. When you don’t focus on the real challenges confronting business today, failure is imminent.

Create a culture of empowerment. It’s difficult for many people to asend into a leadership position and recognize the mental shift that coincides with that responsibility. When your dedicated to getting things done every day, productivity feels very different when success is based on projects, assignments and developing innovation. Many leaders micromanage at this stage not appreciating their time should be focused on more pressing concerns.  Giving people the freedom to execute without constant oversight is essential for success.

“Image is what people think we are. Integrity is what we really are”. — John C. Maxwell

Sum it up

Here’s the bad news, these mistakes are prevalent. The good news, they can b fix, but that requires tremendous commitment.

Any other examples of mistakes leaders make when they lack integrity? Please like and share this article and include your thoughts in the comments section below. I love learning from you as well.

About Steve:

Steve Wohlenhaus is CEO of Weatherology, the leading company in the world at disseminating audio weather information.  Steve began his career as a major market television weather anchor in Minneapolis, where he received several Emmy Awards for science programming. Steve is an author and host of the post program Anatomy of Success. Reach out and connect with me on LinkedIn!