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Summary: Most people fail in their careers because of leadership deficiencies. A key reason for their failure is they continually and unknowingly keep falling into two leadership traps. The author describes traps and how to get out of them.
Two Leadership Traps: How To Avoid Them. How To Get Out Of them (Part 1) by Brent Filson
You've heard of Peter Principle: "People are promoted to their level of ultimate incompetence". But what Peter Principle doesn't tell you is nature of incompetence. For most part, it's leadership incompetence.
A human resources director told me, "Brent, we hire people for their skills and knowledge, but we fire them or fail to promote them or promote them for their leadership abilities -- or lack thereof."
In other words, throughout their careers, people are promoted to take charge of bigger and bigger groups -- until they take over a group that's too big for their leadership abilities.
One main reason they come up short in abilities is they are constantly and unconsciously falling into two leadership traps.
I'll describe traps, how to get out of them, and how not to get into them in first place.
The traps can be particularly deadly because they are in many cases self-set -- and even self-triggered. What's worse: vast majority of leaders who get into them don't have a clue they're caught. It's one thing to be in a trap and know you're in it: You try to get out. But it's a problem of another magnitude to be in a trap and not know you're in it. In that case, you'll stay there.
THE FIRST TRAP: "I need ..."
A marketing leader in a major global company was stumbling. His team was failing to achieve targeted results. He told me, "The good news is they do what I tell them. The bad news is they do what I tell them -- ONLY what I tell them. Other than firing worst of bunch or transferring others out of team, I can't figure out what to do. And if I don't do it soon, I'll be one fired or transferred!"
