This document discusses the top 10 mistakes that leaders make. It presents each mistake as a heading with 2-4 bullet points explaining the mistake. The mistakes include having a top-down attitude, prioritizing paperwork over people, failing to provide affirmation, not allowing for mavericks, dictatorial decision-making, poor delegation, lack of communication, failing to understand corporate culture, not planning for successors, and failing to focus on the future.

1. The
Top10
Mistakes
Leaders
Make
Presented By
Tanmay Kumar Mishra

2. About the Author
Dr. Hans Finzel is the President of World
Venture, a church planting and leadership
training ministry currently operating in over
60 countries worldwide

3. the top-Down AttituDe 01
 The top-down attitude comes naturally to
most people.
 Servant leadership is much more rare.
EFFECTIVE
LEADERS

4. putting pAperwork before
people work 02
 The greater the leadership
role, the less time there
seems to be or people.
 The greater the leadership
role, the more important
people work is.
 People are opportunities,
not interruptions.
 Only through association is
there transformation.

5. the Absence of AffirmAtion: whAt
coulD be better thAn A pAy rAise? 03
 Leadership has as
much to do with
the “soft sciences”
as with things
getting done.
 We wildly
underestimate the
power of the
tiniest personal
touch of kindness.
 Learn to read the varying levels of
affirmation your people need.

6. no room for mAvericks: they
bring us the future! 04
 Mavericks can save us
from the slide
toward
institutionalism.
 Large organization
usually kill off
mavericks
before they can take
root.
 Mavericks make messes by their very nature-
the good messes institutions need.
 Learn to recognize truly useful mavericks.

7. DictAtorship in Decision mAking:
getting beyonD “i know All the
Answers”
05
 Dictators deny the value of
individuals.
The major players in an organization are like
its stockholders. They should have a say in its
direction.
 The one who does the job should decide how
it is done.
 “Flat” organizations are the model of the
future.

8. Dirty DelegAtion: refusing to
06
WINTER
relAx AnD let go
 Overmanging is one of the great cardinal
Template
sins of poor leadership.
 Nothing frustrates those who work for you
more than sloppy delegation with too many
strings attached.
 Delegation should match each worker’s
follow-through ability.

9. communicAtion chAos 07
 Never assume that
anyone knows
anything.
 The bigger the group,
the more attention
must be given to
communication.
 When left in the dark, people tend to dream up
wild rumors.
 Communication must be the passionate obsession
of effective leadership.

10. missing the clues of corporAte
culture: the unseen killer of
mAny leADers
08
 Corporate culture is “the way we do things
around here.”
 Never underestimate the mighty power of
your organization’s culture.
 Cultivating and changing the culture should
be one of leadership’s top priorities.
 Learn to respect values different from your
own.

11. success without successors:
plAnning your DepArture the DAy
you stArt
09
 Pride tightens the
grip on leadership;
humility relaxes
and lets go.
 Finishing well is an
important
measure of
success in
leadership.
Mentoring is a nonnegotiable function of
successful leadership.

12. fAilure to focus on the future:
prepAre yourself—it’s lAter thAn
you think
10
 The future is rushing at us at breakneck
speed.
 A leader’s concentration must not be on the
past nor on the present, but on the future.
 Vision is an effective
leader’s chief
preoccupation.
 Organizations are
reinvented with new
generations of dreamers.