I love reading non-fiction as your probably know from my Book Review Index. Once I entered the job market and became an employee at an organization, leadership and how it manifests at different levels of a company has fascinated me. I am still early in my industry career and hope that one day, with experience and training, I will progress to higher levels of management. Mike McHargue’s book Rookie Mistakes : Advice from Top Executives on Five Critical Leadership Errors was the perfect read for me to learn about leadership. This book is under 200 pages so if want a quick read, pick this up! Take a look at the synopsis below:
Are Your Critical Leadership Errors Undermining Your Team and Organization?
After working with more than 300 teams as a Principal Consultant for The Table Group, Mike McHargue recognized an emerging pattern. It became clear that, as many of those well-intentioned leaders made their way from managers to executives, they made significant leadership mistakes.
For his work Rookie Mistakes: Advice from Top Executives on Five Critical Leadership Errors, McHargue interviewed hundreds of executives, 25 of whom were vulnerable enough to share their wisdom about errors that must be avoided both by the rookie leader and the seasoned executive.
Rookie Mistakes focuses on the most damaging of those errors to leaders and teams. McHargue learned from his research that those errors fell into five clear categories:
• Allowing confusion
• Failing to connect with their team
• Running truly awful meetings
• Hiring too fast and firing too slow
• Failing to give and receive feedback
This book offers practical advice to help you become the leader you always imagined you would be.
Thoughts on Rookie Mistakes
Through Rookie Mistakes : Advice from Top Executives on Five Critical Leadership Errors, Mike addresses five areas where executives can make mistakes as leaders. Though I am not an executive myself, I found that all of these mistakes are good to be aware of on a personal level. Allowing confusion, not connecting with my team, setting meetings that go no where and failing to give/receive feedback are possible to do at any level in an organization, though they are surely more impactful when done right at the executive level. I do not have hiring and firing in my hands, but I think of that as not giving people the right opportunities to showcase where they are good at, individually and in a team. This reflection reminded me that I don’t need to be an executive position to be a leader, though being in such a position gives one more influence over change and culture.
The best leaders admit their mistakes so that others might learn from them. This makes everyone on the team and in the organization better.
Mike McHargue in Rookie Mistakes : Advice from Top Executives on Five Critical Leadership Errors
This book is composed on short stories from a number of executives who have been in these roles for a long time, whether in public sector organizations or in private businesses. That is one of the things I love about leadership and psychological concepts – they apply across the board. There were three points from the book that I want to highlight and after each of them, I will pose a question to you, my dear reader, to think about and answer in the comments.
On Values and Mission
We all have values that we live by – we might not have said them out aloud or spent time thinking about them, but they exist. With organizations, values are more visible. They represent the vision, the culture and the things that matter as a whole. Upholding them and using them is integrated into the work life. Mike raises a great point through his discussions with the executives, questioning whether employees truly know the values of their organization.
Organizational values guide everything you do at work. Organizational values describe the core ethics or principles which the company will abide by, no matter what. They inspire employees’ best efforts and also constrain their actions. Strong, clearly-articulated values should be a true reflection of your organization’s aspirations for appropriate workplace behavior, and play an important role in building a positive culture at your organization.
Worklogic
Think beyond the organization now – think about your values. Think about the values of the communities that you belong in. With any passion that you pursue, how do you go about doing it? What are some ethics and principles that you follow? What is your manifesto?
I have looked at personal values (check out the Life Values Inventory to get started) and knowing them isn’t necessarily the same as implementing them. Like any graphical representations for values in an organization, our personal ones too can get sidelined.
On Accountability and Validation
My friend Brent describes accountability the best: Whose head is on the chopping block? In business, we talk about the RACI – the different people who are Responsible, Accountable, Consulted and Informed. Accountability is the hardest one and that is the one that lies with executives of the organization. If projects are not giving the expected results, if the values are not integrated well into the work place, if the strategic goals of an organization are not being met, who has the power to change and influence these things?
I found it refreshing to learn how accountability is also related to keeping the right people and validating the work that everyone has been doing. It is the operational staff who are responsible after all, who know the ins and outs of the current processes and can bring wonderful new ideas.
… each of us would be held accountable for our actions and results, but that all of us would be validated for the good work, creativity, and resourcefulness we each brought to the team.
David Parsin in Rookie Mistakes : Advice from Top Executives on Five Critical Leadership Errors
How important is validation for you from those who are accountable?
For all the projects that I work on, my supervisor is the one who is accountable. When he sees the good work I do and lets me know I am doing well, it means a lot. It also gives us the opportunity to discuss places where I could improve. He isn’t an executive but he is still a leader.
On Being Yourself
Only do what only you can do.
G. Shawn Hunter in Rookie Mistakes : Advice from Top Executives on Five Critical Leadership Errors
This is one of my favorites quotes from the book. We are all unique. We might have the same skills and training, but we bring a different perspective to the table due to our different experiences. We are all leaders in our own ways.
What is the unique thing that you bring to a team?
I will relate this to my values – I love learning and I am always looking for ways in which I can try out new skills. Whether it is working visually and creating quote graphics anytime for anyone, or my curiosity about various topics, I have learned to reach out to people and ask. The worst thing that can happen is that they well say no or ignore me.
Overall, I truly enjoyed this book. Short and to the point, Rookie Mistakes : Advice from Top Executives on Five Critical Leadership Errors has much to offer, not just for executives but anyone who wants to be better leader and team player!
** Rookie Mistakes: Advice from Top Executives on Five Critical Leadership Errors is now out in stores so get a copy and let me know what you think! Let’s have a book discussion! **
Amazon Print
Amazon Kindle
(available on Kindle Unlimited)
Thank you for reading. I hope you will think a bit about leadership and answer the questions I posed. Many thanks to Mike for providing me a complimentary copy of the book, in exchange for an honest review. Stay tuned for an interview with him, coming tomorrow in The Creator’s Roulette. Also, if you are curious about meetings and leadership in everyday life, check out his guest post on my blog from last year.
Cover image: Photo by Josh Calabrese on Unsplash
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