If we aren’t careful – we can let a practice develop where we constantly have a negative mindset. That begins to carry over into every other area of our life – and we start to view our world this way. It’s very difficult to follow a negative-minded leader.
Dangerous Leadership Fails to Enjoy the Journey
Never taking time to celebrate will eventually derail good leadership.
High achieving leaders can often fall into this trap. I get there at times and have to be reminded – either through personal discipline or when others speak into my life.
I’m always seeing the next big opportunity ahead and striving for constant improvement. Also, I can fail to recognize current success while continually searching for future potential.
The problem is a constant forward push isn’t sustainable long-term. It burns people out, makes them feel under appreciated, and leads to a very low team morale.
People need disciplined plateaus where they can rest, catch their breath and celebrate the victory already achieved.
Expecting more from others than you’re personally willing to give.
I once worked for a leader like this. He had high expectations for everyone, not only in quality of work, but also in how many hours they should be working. The problem was this leader didn’t appear to have high expectations for himself.
He would work just enough to bark out a few orders, but then he was gone. And because he was mostly an absentee leader, even if he was working when he wasn’t around (and I personally knew he was often working out of the office), no one believed he was.
People following a leader with this mindset mostly stay for a paycheck.
