Bad Managers Who Become Unsuccessful Executives
How about a little conversation with a stress chaser? I hosted dinner for my extended family a few weeks ago. As usual, it was a great evening full of laughter, new and old stories and playful verbal jabbing. After dinner we strayed into a round of updates on how everyone was doing at work, a discussion which included a familiar factor: stress. With a wide range of industries and employers represented around the table, it was fascinating to hear a rich sampling of “bad boss” tales. We’ve all been there and we all longed for when the bad boss would move on to something else.
Not long after hosting that dinner I came across a January 2012 article by Eric Jackson at Forbes: “The Seven Habits of Spectacularly Unsuccessful Executives.” The article covered research conducted in 2004 by Sydney Finkelstein, Steve Roth Professor of Management at the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College. In a number of ways, the professor’s study resonated nicely with the job stress conversation mentioned above which, in turn, made me want to share Finkelstein’s research in this latest Management Secrets blog series. Finkelstein examined what was done by over 50 former high-flying companies – like Enron, Tyco, WorldCom, Rubbermaid, and Schwinn – to become complete failures. As you read this list, consider how these seven nasty habits look at the executive C-level and how they look at the next management level down as well.
Unsuccessful Executive Habit # 1: They see themselves and their companies as dominating their environmentThis first habit appears to be the most insidious, since it seems to be highly desirable. Shouldn’t a company dominate its business environment in order to shape the future of its markets? Yes, but there’s a big catch. Unlike successful leaders, failed leaders who never question their dominance fail to recognize they are at the mercy of changing circumstances. They greatly overestimate the extent to which they control events and greatly underestimate the role of chance in their success.
To coin a phrase – they start believing their own press releases. Or put another way, their ego starts writing checks their body can’t cash. These CEOs suffer from an illusion of personal grandeur: Like certain movie directors, they see themselves as God-like creators of their companies. As far as they’re concerned, everyone else in the company is there to execute their personal vision for the organization. Samsung’s CEO Kun-Hee Lee was so successful with electronics he believed he could repeat his success with cars. He invested $5 billion in a saturated market with no business case. Why? He loved cars, had dreamed of being in the auto business and just assumed that’s all he needed. Wrong assumption.
Warning Sign for #1: A lack of respect – Side Note – at the management level, these managers may see themselves as dominating and having sovereign control of their team, humility is in short supply, ego is often profuse, as is lack of respect for the skills their employees bring to the table.
Habit #2: They identify so completely with the company that there is no clear boundary between their personal interests and their corporation’s interestsLike the first habit, this one seems innocent enough, perhaps even beneficial. But “don’t worry” said the spider to the fly. We want business leaders to be completely committed to their companies, with their interests aligned with those of the company. Turns out after digging deeper it was found that failed executives weren’t identifying too little with the company, but rather too much. Instead of treating companies as enterprises that they needed to nurture, failed leaders treated them as their personal offspring — extensions of themselves. With that, a “private empire” mentality was locked in.
CEOs with this outlook often use their companies to carry out personal ambitions. The most slippery slope of all for these leaders is to use corporate funds for personal reasons. CEOs with an impressive track record may come to feel they’ve made so much money for the company that the expenditures they make on themselves, even if extravagant, are trivial by comparison. This twisted reasoning was one of the factors that shaped the behavior of Dennis Kozlowski of Tyco and was exhibited in both his pride in his company and his personal extravagance. This is why he could sound so sincere making speeches about ethics while unethically using corporate funds for personal purposes. Being the CEO of a sizable corporation is the closest thing to being king of your own country, and that’s a dangerous title to assume.
Warning Sign for #2: A question of character – Side Note – at the management level, is it all about how things benefit the manager with no concern for the team? The manager who isn’t regularly concerned with his team’s welfare and will throw them under the bus if needed, falls closely in line with Habit Number 2, “character missing.”
Can you take the first two unsuccessful traits above and recall finding these traits in a manager you have worked for in the past — or worse – a manager YOU may have been? Think it over … drop me a line and let me know what answers you come up with. I’ll see you in a couple weeks with another Management Secrets blog installment and a few more bad habits to chew on.
