5 Common Leadership Mistakes You Don’t Even Realize You Are Making

By Lilian Wamaitha
Leadership is a tricky path especially for the inexperienced.
Sometimes people will take up leadership positions out of necessity. Someone left and the organization ends up promoting the next person in line to take up that leadership position. They are not ready and most of the times end up failing.
Other times, you may be inclined to seek that leadership position on your own because you feel ready. You advocated for a position that was open or you took the leap of faith to start your own company.
However, one thing about leadership is that it can’t be learned in a day. You can’t just take up a position and immediately assume that you are a leader. This is because to be a good leader depends on how well you know yourself and lead others.
The sad news is that most people are just in love with the idea of being seen as leaders than actually perfecting their leadership qualities.
They are obsessed with being seen as a boss and for people to look up to them rather than working hard to prove themselves worthy of that position.
Keeping that in mind, here are five common leadership mistakes that even you may not realize you are making because to you that what leadership is about.
1. You are confusing control with delegation
Are you the kind of person who believes that your position is all about telling other people what to do or the one who people go to for everything?
Do you want people to just ask you how to do things because you want to be seen as the person who knows everything?
This is not what leadership is about.
Leadership is about empowering others. It’s about building a team of confident and independent people who can do the job without you being there. It’s about seeing the bigger picture and being a little bit less selfish to see those below you progress.
Give them the control to think on their own and share their opinions without fear.
When you do this, you will not only gain their respect but will make your job less tedious because you don’t have to follow anyone anymore.
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2. You care more about the job title rather than the responsibilities of the job
If you are the kind of leader who is all about “I am the one in charge and that’s why you should listen to me” you are not winning yourself any medals. Instead you are just creating and environment for people to hate and disrespect you.
Leadership is not about that job title. Basically when you find the need to keep reminding people that you are the one in charge, you have actually lost your bearing as an authority figure.
Real leaders don’t have to keep hammering into people that they are the captains, because they are already trusted in their own rights.
Unfortunately what happens most of the time is that leaders care more about being called the CEO, supervisor or partnerships manager than they do about the skills they need to be effective leaders.
They want their name on the door, the office with the biggest windows and the biggest bonus just because of their position but that’s not what true leadership is about.
A true leader never cares whether their name is listed first or if they have an office with their name on the door. A true leader is all about empowering others first and earning that right to be trusted and looked up to.
3. You just want to take credit when things go well and shift the blame in crisis
This is a common one among some leaders. No one likes to be around or even work under someone who never takes responsibilities.
Great leadership is about leading by example and such a person will be the first one to step up and accept an equal amount of blame as the others.
Passing on the blame to others and only taking credit when things work out is just a way of telling them to stop respecting you.
4. You suddenly want to work less and expect more than everyone else
Have you ever noticed how we all work hard when we are eyeing that leadership position but then suddenly change when we get it.
You now want to put in half the effort just because you think you can order people around to do half you job. You suddenly want to leave earlier and leave the rest slaving for you.
This is not a testament for true leadership. A real leader will work just as hard when they get that position.
For them it doesn’t mean that they now get to relax. It doesn’t mean that they get to leave earlier than the rest.
Leadership for them is not about giving others the job you don’t want to do and walking around feeling entitled – like the rest owe you for managing them.
5. You want to treat others how you were treated
This is a common one.
I remember when I was in high school; how we use to vow that when we got jobs we would take revenge on the teachers who didn’t treat us well.
As human beings we crave attention and for someone to treat us better. Maybe you had a supervisor who looked down on you when you were in that junior position, but the past is the past and you shouldn’t treat others the same way.
True leadership is about doing things in a different way. It’s about correcting the wrongs that were done to you and treating others better than you were treated.
What it all comes down to is
Leadership is a journey that you will not perfect in a day. Whatever you do, think before you say something. Obviously whoever put you in that position of leadership saw something in you that the others didn’t have?
You keep learning every day and you do this when you have the respect of those who report to you. Master what it takes to be a great leader in your profession by enrolling for a leadership course today.
Lilian is a Communication Officer at Corporate Staffing Services. For enquiries, send an email to me via lilian@corporatestaffing.co.ke.