Why Do Smart Leaders Fail?

The Idea: Smart leaders who end up failing often times are guilty of four sins. They get off track with their decisiveness, fail to create systems hindering execution, struggle with financial accountability and/or fail to attract and retain talent (especially younger talent). Who in your life is giving you on-going feedback?

Smart leaders who end up failing often times get off track with their decisiveness, they fail to create systems hindering execution, struggle with financial accountability and/or fail to attract and retain talent (especially younger talent). I have also been personally inspired that the best leaders actually create virtual board of advisors to help them stay in reality. They are not afraid of on-going feedback and critique.

Most of us (as leaders) need to spend less time trying to motivate our teams, and more time ensuring we are not de-motivating our organizations. What do I mean by that? According to Florida State researcher Wane Hochwarter there are five themes that are getting in the way of team motivation. They are deadly, but can be fixed.

39% said their leaders fail to keep promises
37% said their leaders failed to give them credit
27% said their leaders made negative comments to others about them.
24% said their leaders had invaded their privacy.
23% said their leaders had blamed others for their mistakes.

So why do smart leaders fail? According to researcher Roger Bellows who conducted a study titled – Employee Motivation: The Role of the Supervisor– there are a number of key drivers including: