Seven Habits of Highly Ineffective Leaders — and the PR Challenges They Create

Issue Date: Daily ‘Dog – April 9, 2009,  http://tinyurl.com/CossolottoThoughtLeaderSeven Habits of Highly Ineffective Leaders — and the PR Challenges They Create

By Matthew CossolottoLeaders are people too. And this means leaders are creatures of habit just like everybody else.Aristotle said it well: “We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence is not an act, but a habit.” The same thing can be said for failure. Basically, Aristotle recognized the power of what I call “HabitForce.”Fast-forwarding a few centuries to the present, I believe it’s essential for the PR and public affairs community to appreciate the role “HabitForce” plays in determining the behavioral and thought patterns of the executives and officials they serve.Note this: Our personal “HabitForce” operates on autopilot, like a software program or personal operating system. If you’re providing PR support for somebody in a leadership position, it’s a good idea to be aware of specific “HabitForce” patterns, especially those that tend to work against the interests of the organization, the country, or even the world community at large. Which brings me to the current economic meltdown and the leadership crisis we’ve experienced. I’m not talking only about the failure of political leadership from Washington and foreign capitals. Leadership has been woefully lacking in the business world, as well. This headline from The New York Times (March 26, 2009) captures the situation: “Where’s the Plan, Wall Street?” Let’s face it. The budget crisis in Washington didn’t materialize overnight. Nor did the long-festering energy and healthcare problems we face, not to mention the subprime lending fiasco and the resulting financial sector meltdown. All of these issues have been gestating over long periods of time. As President Obama declared in his recent address to Congress, the day of reckoning has arrived. But we won’t succeed in digging ourselves out of the ditch we’re in unless we recognize and change the disempowering leadership habits that led us into this perilous situation in the first place. So what does this all mean to PR professionals? The answer: PR people can play a uniquely important role in turning things around. But only if they understand how “HabitForce” operates and proactively counsel their executives to avoid the failure traps of highly ineffective leaders. In my new book, “The Real F Word: The 7 FAILURE Traps of Highly Disempowered People (And What to do About Them),” I describe the seven habits that hold people (and leaders) back from achieving their potential. I also discuss the seven equal-but-opposite SUCCESS habits that propel people toward their goals. Throughout the recent presidential campaign and in the months since the election, I’ve been struck by how much the seven FAILURE traps and SUCCESS tracks detailed in my book‹originally developed as personal empowerment tools to help individuals close the gap between their performance and their potential — also apply with only minor adjustments to those who occupy leadership positions in business or government. Here’s a handy checklist of FAILURE and SUCCESS habits — a kind of cheat sheet for PR practitioners— for measuring how your clients or the leaders in your organization are doing. Your job is to help your executives avoid the PR pitfalls represented by the FAILURE traps on the left and move them toward the more positive SUCCESS habits on the right: (Sorry … formatting problem.  Click Link above for full text of the article)