The Seven Habits of Spectacularly Unsuccessful Executives

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As a student of leadership and success, I’m a junkie for the stream of articles and business books that package up business research, observations, and insights into digestible bits.  Somehow I had missed Sydney Finkelstein’s 2004 work on failure, and thought I’d share this review published in Forbes yesterday.  This is a good read, here is the teaser describing the these habits of leaders:

  • Habit # 1:  They see themselves and their companies as dominating their environment;
  • Habit #2:  They identify so completely with the company that there is no clear boundary between their personal interests and their corporation’s interests;
  • Habit #3:  They think they have all the answers;
  • Habit #4:  They ruthlessly eliminate anyone who isn’t completely behind them;
  • Habit #5: They are consummate spokespersons, obsessed with the company image;
  • Habit #6: They underestimate obstacles;
  • Habit #7: They stubbornly rely on what worked for them in the past.

Hope you get as much value out of this as I did today!

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