5 common leadership mistakes and how to avoid them

The Philadelphia Eagles won their second Super Bowl in franchise history this past February, dominating the two-time defending champion Kansas City Chiefs in a 40-22 rout.

There are many explanations for the victory, from the confident demeanor of quarterback Jalen Hurts to the thunderous impact of newly-acquired running back Saquon Barkley, who set the National Football League all-time record for rushing yards in a season in his first year with the Eagles.

However, according to 2021 Vistage Speaker of the Year David Friedman, the true catalyst for the team’s success wasn’t something that happened on the field — it was the culture created by Eagles ownership and head coach Nick Sirianni.

Since joining Philadelphia in 2021, Sirianni has fostered trust and supported his players to help the team become one of the most dominant in the NFL.

“Philadelphia focused heavily on the culture,” says Friedman, an Eagles season-ticket holder and CEO of High Performing Culture. “Whether it’s a sports team, a family, a business, or a group of friends, the culture in that group of people has an enormous influence in shaping the way that those people do things.”

Neglecting company culture is one of the common leadership mistakes that many leaders make. CEOs’ missteps, whether through poor decision-making, mismanaging change or lacking emotional intelligence, can permanently derail organizations. By recognizing these common pitfalls, leaders can strengthen team morale and improve overall business success.

1. Neglecting personal connections

Eagles executive vice president and general manager Howie Roseman knew his team was building something special soon after a road playoff loss to Tampa Bay in 2022. The team returned to Philadelphia to find their cars frosted over in the January cold. Roseman was driving home, talking on the phone with Sirianni, when the head coach said he’d call him right back.

Thirty minutes later, Sirianni finally called. Roseman asked what took so long.

Sirianni explained that a rookie’s car had broken down, so he waited with the player until a tow truck arrived.

During a 2022 press conference, Roseman shared what Sirianni said next.

“That’s my guy,” Sirianni told his boss. “I’ve got to take care of him.”

The fact that a head coach fresh off of suffering a playoff loss would spend a half hour standing in the cold with a rookie epitomized the Eagles culture. Every person within the organization mattered.

Unfortunately, many leaders do not show that same commitment and fail to bond with their team members. The consequence of not establishing emotional connections with employees can be catastrophic.

“If I’m a leader and I haven’t bonded with my people, they don’t feel connected to me,” Friedman says. “I’ve abdicated my role in setting the culture, and that’s a scary thing to do because I don’t know where it’s going to go. If I understand how impactful culture is on the results of the business, I don’t want to leave that to chance.”

Leaders must be approachable in order to build true connections. Friedman has worked with thousands of leaders, and one thing he’s noticed is many don’t realize how scary they are perceived to be. They could be the nicest person in the world, but because they are the boss, they will be feared by many in the organization.

To offset that, Friedman suggested leaders demonstrate similarities that exist between themselves and their employees.

“Showing vulnerability can be a great way to create more connection with people,” he said. “I think authenticity is so huge to be able to show that you’re a real person. That comes across in the conversations you have and in the ways that you deal with people.”

2. Ineffective decision-making under pressure

One of the conversations Vistage Chair and speaker Heather Anderson frequently had with leaders during the COVID-19 pandemic revolved around return-to-work decisions.

Anderson, an executive coach focused on emotional intelligence, believes the best decision-makers balance their own feelings with facts and how others will feel about the decision. When someone is pressured to make a decision, they tend not to take that multifaceted approach. When that happens, mistakes are often made.

“When I see people make poor decisions, they’re missing one of those,” Anderson says. “Somebody spends so much time deciding based on their own feelings, or they overemphasize the feelings of others, or they only want to look at relevant facts. The reality is it important to look at all three. This information processing exercise will then give leaders the language from which to communicate their decision.”

Friedman has seen many CEOs make common leadership mistakes — whether they are under pressure or not — of not explaining how decisions are made and what role other people play in the process.

Sometimes, decisions should be made by a majority vote, sometimes by consensus and other times, the leader must make the ultimate call.

“If we’re talking about the company holiday party, we might do a majority vote,” Friedman says. “If we’re talking about the strategic direction for the company, I’m making that call, but I’m interested in your input.”

Leaders can build connections with employees by asking for advice or suggestions. If no explanation is given about how the decision will be made, though, employees can feel disenfranchised if their viewpoint differs from the direction chosen by the CEO.

Ultimately, that lack of communication can drive people to leave the business.

“We often don’t tell them just because we haven’t thought about it,” Friedman says. “It’s not purposeful, it’s just lack of clarity. And that lack of clarity leads to frustration.”

3. Mismanaging organizational change

Just as poor communication can lead to ineffective decision-making, it also can be blamed when leaders mismanage organizational change.

Leaders spend countless hours researching, evaluating, and ultimately deciding on major changes. This process can be grueling and overwhelming, but it can also bring clarity. Many times, though, a high-level overview of that process is not explained to others within the organization.

“It’s so obvious to them. They have done all the work inside of their own heads to understand the importance of the change,” Anderson says, “and yet they don’t show their work to their employees.”

When that work isn’t shown, employees don’t understand the change. When something isn’t understood, Anderson says, it often is rejected.

Rejection also occurs when leaders fail to acknowledge the impact changes may have on individuals. When a leader is authentic and acknowledges fears or concerns, it’s far easier to gain support.

“Show your work about the change and make sure you normalize for people that their feelings of uncertainty or worry are legitimate,” Anderson says. “Let them know you understand these feelings and will do your best to address them.”

4. Falling into early leadership traps

As a new leader, there is a tendency to show competency by implementing immediate widespread change.

That instinct is often misplaced.

“What I would make up to be true is people need to show expertise and knowledge, so they feel like that is best displayed through action, through doing,” Anderson says. “(When that happens), you don’t take a step back and really just learn and listen.”

Friedman also believes that new leaders worry too much about likability when they ascend to a decision-making role. They want to make people happy, and that desire can prevent them from making impactful organizational decisions.

“One of the biggest leadership mistakes I’ve seen new CEOs and founders make is wanting to be liked instead of making decisions that are in the best interest of the business,” he says. “Is it the right thing for the business? Then that’s what I have to do.”

Leaders — both new and established — also struggle with discerning where and when collaboration is appropriate, says Friedman. There is a time to bring people together, and that can, in turn, help build bonds between leaders and their subsidiaries.

However, there is also a time when leaders can identify a direction without feeling that they need consensus before proceeding.

“The captain of a ship doesn’t ask all the sailors, ‘What would you like to do today?’” Friedman adds. “He says, ‘Come on folks, let’s go!’ This is what leaders do.”

5. Lacking emotional intelligence

Thirty years ago, Anderson was an instructor with Outward Bound USA, a national organization that offers outdoor education programs primarily for young people. Her job was to take kids into the wilderness for 23 days and let the wilderness be their teacher.

She thought the experience was about teaching kids mountaineering and survival skills, but she realized it instead was a crash course in emotional intelligence.

“They didn’t transfer technical skills into their lives,” she says. “In fact, they walked away with a totally different set of skills. The things they walked away with were types of skills that they could utilize to help them manage difficult relationships, cope with the challenges of school and make decisions better about what they wanted. That all ended up being the framework for emotional intelligence.”

Mental Health America defines emotional intelligence as “the ability to manage your own emotions and understand the emotions of people around you.” It outlines five key elements that are integral to emotional intelligence: self-awareness, self-regulation, motivation, empathy and social skills.

Anderson watched in disbelief as the teenagers she worked with developed their emotional intelligence over the course of three weeks. One of the greatest success stories was a young man who learned to steal cars as a child. When Anderson met him, he had already been to jail, but no one else in the group knew his story. They admired him for his natural leadership abilities.

When he ultimately shared his background with the group, there was no shame or disrespect toward him. In fact, the respect only grew, boosting his self-confidence.

“Here was somebody who resorted to stealing cars and really didn’t ever believe he’d amount to much in his life,” Anderson says. “He developed confidence. He saw himself differently. He became self-aware.”

Not showing emotional intelligence can be one of the biggest leadership mistakes one could make. Friedman refers to it as leaders not getting out of their own heads.

‘Thinking from somebody else’s perspective is such a huge part of being an effective leader and an effective human,” he said. “And it’s remarkable how few people do that well.”

In one instance, Friedman worked with an organization and its CEO to brainstorm ways to improve the company culture. When it was time to meet with the CEO and other representatives, the CEO was late. He instructed everyone to get started without him.

Then, when it was time for Friedman to work one-on-one with the CEO to fine-tune a plan, the CEO delegated the work.

“He didn’t understand how that came across to his people,” Friedman said. “He’s just clueless about it.”

Elevating past leadership mistakes

In “The Advantage: Why Organizational Health Trumps Everything Else in Business,” author Patrick Lencioni explains that companies need to be smart and healthy. Being smart refers to traditional business disciplines like finances, sales and marketing. Being healthy refers to when management, operations and culture are aligned.

Both are important, but Lencioni found that focusing on a company’s health maximizes employees’ potential and leads to greater organizational success.

“Most CEOs spend most of their time and attention on the smart stuff because it’s easier, it’s more concrete, it’s more finite,” Friedman says. “But the biggest opportunity they have to make a difference in their companies and even to create a sustainable competitive advantage, is the people stuff. That’s the biggest driver of success, but for most, it’s very squishy, it’s very nebulous, it’s very amorphous. So they spend all this time on other stuff, and it’s a huge mistake.”

At Vistage, we understand that leadership is a continuous journey. Through our leadership development and coaching programs, peer advisory groups, and executive coaching, we help leaders navigate challenges, avoid common pitfalls and enhance their leadership effectiveness. Our proven leadership development methodologies empower executives to build stronger teams, drive innovation and adapt to an ever-changing business landscape.

Now that you’ve learned about these 5 common leadership mistakes, download The 6 Habits of World-Class CEOs to discover daily practices you can integrate into your life and your leadership journey.

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