Leadership advice that should send you running

Leadership advice is plentiful — in books, online at seminars and in person. A lot of it is worth taking in, but some of it…Well, let’s just say, not so much, says Dan McCarthy, Director of Executive Development Programs at the University of New Hampshire, and head of the Management & Leadership channel at About.com. In a recent blog post for the SmartBrief on Leadership (smartblogs.com/leadership) McCarthy summarized some leadership lessons that should send you running the other direction.

1. Ignore your weaknesses and leverage your strengths This feel-good nonsense usually stems from a lazy misinterpretation of what’s referred to as the “strength-based leadership development” movement, made popular by Gallup, Marcus Buckingham and countless other copycats. Gallup and Buckingham never said to ignore your weaknesses; the idea is to do whatever it takes to minimize your weaknesses (improvement, delegation, finding a different job, etc.). Ignoring a critical leadership weakness is a surefire path to leadership derailment.
2. You need to know more than anyone who works under you. McCarthy actually heard a senior vice president give this advice to a group of new managers. “I wanted to set my hair on fire! Believing that you could possibly know more than the sum of everyone who works for you is arrogance at its worst.”
3. It’s OK to be friends with your employees. You can be friendly with your employees, but when you are in a position that requires you to objectively hire, promote, reward or discipline, the relationship needs to change.
4. If you can’t measure it, then you can’t manage it. “This is bull—,” McCarthy says. “In fact, most of what we do at work can’t and shouldn’t be measured. Managers that subscribe to this advice end up paying attention to the minutia that’s easily measured and ignoring what’s really important.”
5. The best way to learn leadership is from successful business CEOs. Sometimes, but not always. Steve Jobs was a visionary and incredibly successful businessman, but there are plenty of people who characterize him as one of the world’s worst leaders. I know of a CEO who handed out Jobs’ book to his executive team as a leadership tutorial. Pity those poor employees!
6. Don’t pay attention to criticism; it’s not your job to make everyone happy. Managers who turn a deaf ear to constructive feedback or dissent will miss opportunities to improve, solve problems or build coalitions for change. 
7. You need to pull up your sleeves, pitch in and get your hands dirty. While it’s good to do this once in a while, managers should not regularly be doing the work of one or two levels below them. To do so is at the expense of the unique and critical work that they should be doing as a manager, undermines their employees’ work and results in micromanaging.
8. First in, last out. Meaning, you need to be the first one to work and the last to leave. Managers that work insanely long hours on a consistent basis are candidates for burnout. You will be less effective in the long run and set a bad example for the rest of the organization.  

Dan McCarthy writes the award-winning leadership development blog Great Leadership (GreatLeadershipByDan.com) and is consistently ranked as one of the top digital influencers in leadership and talent management.