Management Secrets by Mary Elston

How have things been going at work lately? Great or not so great? For many people the quality of their work environment is strongly tied to the caliber of their manager and the executives leading the organization. If you’re fortunate enough to toil away the day with superlative management you feel it in nearly everything you do — it’s simply a better place to be employed. But what if you’re not fortunate in this regard? What are the habits of those executives who make our existence miserable?

That’s what we’ve been discussing over the last few weeks in my Management Secrets blog as I’ve walked you through 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. With this blog installment we’re going to look at the final two habits in the seven habit line up. Review the first five covered earlier in my blog entries immediately preceding this one. Let’s dive in …

Habit #6: They underestimate obstacles –Part of the allure of being a CEO is the opportunity to share a vision. Yet, when CEOs become so enamored with their vision, they often overlook or underestimate the difficulty of actually getting there. And when it turns out the obstacles they casually waved aside are more challenging than they anticipated, these CEO have a habit of plunging full-steam into the abyss. An example of this scenario would be when a company’s business is racking up huge losses, yet they are busy expanding operations at an amazing rate.

Why don’t CEOs in this situation re-evaluate their course of action, or at least hold back for a while until it becomes clearer whether their latest programs will pan out? Some feel an enormous need to be right in every important decision they make, because if they admit to being fallible, their position as CEO might seem tainted or precarious. Once a CEO admits he or she made the wrong call, there will always be people who say the CEO wasn’t up to the job. These unrealistic expectations make it exceedingly hard for a CEO to pull back from any chosen course of action, which not surprisingly causes them to push that much harder. That’s why leaders at Iridium and Motorola (MMI) kept investing billions of dollars to launch satellites even after it had become apparent that land-based cellphones were a better alternative.

Warning Sign of #6: Excessive hype Side note – A manager can become sucked into “believing their own press releases” just as easily as a CEO. A few accolades too many from the corner office or lack of oversight and some managers begin to think they can do no wrong even if they don’t really know what they are doing in the first place. If a new policy or idea has merit excess hype isn’t needed because the idea generates its own validity by virtue of its success.

Habit #7: They stubbornly rely on what worked for them in the past — Many CEOs on their way to becoming spectacularly unsuccessful accelerate their company’s decline by reverting to what they regard as tried-and-true methods. In their desire to make the most of what they regard as their core strengths, they cling to a static business model. Guess what? Doing the same thing every time usually doesn’t work every time! The dynamic and ever-changing nature of products and markets makes this a given. These CEOs may insist on providing a product to a market that no longer exists, or they fail to consider innovations in areas other than those that made the company successful in the past.

Instead of considering a range of options that fit new circumstances, they use their own careers as the only point of reference and do the things that made them previously successful. For example, when Jill Barad was trying to promote educational software at Mattel, she used the promotional techniques that had been effective for her when she was promoting Barbie dolls, despite the fact that software is not distributed or bought the way dolls are.

Often CEOs who fall prey to this habit owe their careers to some “defining moment,” a critical decision or policy choice that resulted in their most notable success. It’s usually the one thing that they’re most known for and the key achievement that gets them all of their subsequent jobs. The problem is that after people have had the experience of that defining moment, if they become the CEO of a large company, they allow their defining moment to define the company as well – no matter how outdated or unrealistic it has become.

Warning Sign of #7: Constantly referring to what worked in the past Side note – particularly for managers, this can be a crushing fault that is exhibited with painful frequency. Consider the individual contributor who is promoted to manager due to their outstanding independent achievements but those achievements don’t translate into outstanding management decisions or contributions. The result is incredibly frustrating for the team who works for the unqualified manager who is a “one hit wonder” with no other ideas in their briefcase.

The bottom line: If you exhibit several of these traits, now is the time to dump them from your repertoire. If your boss or several senior executives at your company exhibit several of these traits, now is the time to start looking for a new job.
I would sum up these seven undesirable habits of highly unsuccessful executives by describing them as: leaders who believe they are better than they really are, have big egos which need to be regularly stroked, don’t stay in touch with reality and don’t engage the skills of their team to make their business continuously successful. Now you know. These are management traits to avoid as well.

What’s the opposite of this? The successful executive or manager who has people who are excited to be working for them and knows how to inspire and keep talented employees. Sounds like a much better formula to which we can all aspire as we continue to pursue improving our own management skills. How are you doing this now? Write to me and let me know! That wraps this blog series …. I’ll be back in a couple of weeks with a new Management Secrets series topic. See you then.

If your boss has you feeling excruciatingly ready for the weekend it must be Friday. If you’re bracing yourself for another stressful work week it must be Monday. If this isn’t your reality — wonderful — if it is, major bummer. As managers, providing great guidance and support for your team and making them feel appreciated and valued allows these work stress extremes to be avoided most of the time. What about the executive leaders and managers who aren’t so great? That’s what we’re exploring in my current Management Secrets blog series — 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.

Last time around we covered bad habits one and two – leaders who think they dominate their environment, and leaders who cannot delineate boundaries between personal and corporate interests. Read the details in my blog entry immediately below this one. With this blog installment we’ll look at a few more.

Habit #3: They think they have all the answers Here’s the image of executive competence that we’ve seen admired throughout history: a dynamic leader making dozens of quick decisions, dealing with multiple crises, and taking only seconds to size up the situation and provide a solution. Big problem with this picture – it’s a total fake. Crisp and decisive leaders tend to move so quickly they don’t grasp the ramifications of fast decisions. Worse, these leaders often have huge egos which won’t let them learn new answers. These leaders who know it all shut down other points of view and often make a series of bad decisions that take the company down the tubes.

Warning Sign for #3: A leader without followers — the executive or manager who has no team members who are allowed to follow him is hogging the glory and all the decision making – bad formula. Side note – at the management level the person with this habit often refuses to recognize his team’s accomplishments in front of upper management – they hog all the glory and keep their team from having any visibility with leadership. This charade can only last so long before their true lack of skill comes out –or worse – they’re being protected by someone higher up and they hang on for years.

Habit #4: They ruthlessly eliminate anyone who isn’t completely behind themCEOs who think their job is to instill belief in their vision also think it’s their job to get everyone to buy into it. If you don’t rally to the cause you’re considered to be against it. Hesitant managers have a choice: Get with the plan or get out. This approach is unnecessary and destructive. CEOs don’t need to have everyone unanimously endorse their vision, in fact, eliminating contrasting points of view cuts them off from seeing problems and correcting them. Eventually those executives being stifled decide to leave and no one is left to warn the CEO when disaster is in hovering in the wings.

Warning Sign for #4: Executive departures Side note – at the management level, departures can take the form of leaving the company or moving to other departments to get away from destructive leaders — from another perspective, employees who seek other jobs to get away from bad managers are sending the same message. If you’re a manager with this kind of negative track record, stop and think about what you’re doing to your team.

Habit #5: They are consummate spokespersons, obsessed with the company imageYou know these CEOs: high-profile executives, constantly in the public eye. The problem is that amid all the media frenzy these leaders’ management efforts become shallow and ineffective. Instead of actually accomplishing things, they often settle for the appearance of accomplishing things. When CEOs are obsessed with their image, they have little time for operational details. As a final negative twist, when CEOs make the company’s image their top priority, they run the risk of using financial-reporting practices to promote that image. In their eyes, everything that the company does is public relations.

Warning Sign of #5: Blatant attention-seeking Side note – for a manager, the same dangers are apparent; managers constantly seeking attention are simply doing a lousy job being a manager and may be faking results, eventually it bites them in the back end.

When have you worked in an environment where leaders or managers exhibited habits 3, 4, or 5? How did you deal with it? As a manager, have you ever fallen into these negative behavior habits? Or better yet, risen above them? Drop me a line and let me know your experiences, good and bad, with these challenging, potentially stress-packed issues. I’ll see you in a couple of weeks with the final two habits in this blog series. Till then, take care.

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.