Why So Many Leaders Fail

Source | hackernoon.com | Faisal Hoque

We are constantly putting business leaders on a pedestal, celebrating their stellar successes, but for me, the real lessons lay in understanding the failures of business cultures and leadership patterns.

To be successful we have to first learn to guard against destructive behaviours — everyone will be confronted with them (indeed, perhaps exhibit them) at some point in their career.

Let me highlight six of the biggest mistakes for anyone in a leadership role. These characteristics are what make us human, but they are also what separate the true leaders from the wannabes.

Fear of change

People used to have fun browsing the shelves at Blockbuster to see which movies were still available for rent that night. (“Am I in the mood for a horror movie or a comedy?”) They had the strongest entertainment brand, but they went under because of a stubborn refusal to follow the customer online. With their decades long knowledge of industry trends, surely they could have potentially been a player in the online market. Instead they chose to stick with what worked earlier until they unravelled. Today’s economy — global, domestic, and local — is fast and dynamic; it’s in a constant state of change. And so, the greatest overarching challenge facing leaders and their organizations today is to be able to quickly identify and respond to market change.

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