Six Reasons Why Leaders Make Bad Decisions - Articles

Employees want leaders who can help them grow professionally and who have the influence to advance their careers over time. Leaders who are focused on their own hidden agendas lose sight of the bigger picture, quickly get disconnected from their employees, and fail to build a team that lasts.

To help identify leaders who are not what they may seem to be, look out for the following six behavioral patterns:

Rely Too Much on Past Experience. Leaders tend to rely on past experience that seems useful but is actually sometimes dangerous. This explains why leaders have a difficult time transferring their prior success to a new company. Just because you have a track record of prior success doesn’t mean that it will apply within your current organization. They need to create momentum in the new environment.
Addicted to Corporate Politics. Political motivations make it difficult to make objective decisions and manage the core responsibilities at hand. Most of the time these motives don’t align with their beliefs and over time they find themselves making poor decisions to keep a bad relationship alive. They lost sight of their primary role and responsibilities as a leader, making it almost impossible to revive any momentum and trust from the employees who depend upon them.
Lack Clarity of Purpose. When you don’t know what you stand for, it becomes more difficult to make good decisions. When you “feel in your gut” that you have lost touch with your core values and believe they no longer align with your senior leadership team, you begin to make bad decisions.
Mismanage Resources. Leaders who jump right into their job without taking the time to become familiar with their resources, find it challenging to be in step with their role and responsibilities. Leading isn’t just about motivating people and inspiring teams; it also requires you to know the tools and resources available and/or need to be acquired to compete. Leaders who make good decisions are continuously improving their playbook of resources.
Don’t See the Opportunity. Leaders who don’t see the opportunities before them make bad decisions. They lack “circular vision”—the ability to see opportunity in everything. When you can see opportunity in everything, it allows you to more easily connect the dots and anticipate what lies ahead after each decision that you make.
Don’t Trust Themselves to Lead. Leaders who don’t trust themselves enough become desperate and make abrupt decisions. They don’t think about the consequences when they make their decisions for the wrong reasons.

Perhaps you are a leader who has enjoyed success in the past. This doesn’t mean that you will successfully sustain your momentum. You must continually improve your skills, know your competition, invest in your professional development, and partake in anything that leadership requires for you to continuously mature and gather wisdom along the way.