Top Ten Career Mistakes You Are Making Right Now

Senior executives can have a small army of communications experts, financial savants and innovation gurus following them around and you’d think, with all that expertise behind, vetting each decision, they’d be almost immune to making a misstep.  However, despite all these resources and experience, every day, senior executives make terrible decisions that either impact short-term results or destroy a company completely.

Learning from these errors is crucial so here, we dissect the top ten career mistakes senior executives have made and provide real-world examples and advice to help you avoid the same fate.

1. Failure to Adapt to Change and See Where the Market Is Going Example: Anyone who spent Friday night lined up at the video store, hoping that a copy of “Top Gun” was still available knows all too well the fall of Blockbuster. Former CEO Jim Keyes was overly confident in the traditional store model, which, let’s face it, had servedthem well for decades and in doing so, he failed to see the potential of digital streaming, a mistake that led to the company’s downfall with the rise of Netflix.  When Netflix started, streaming wasn’t a thing – they were mailing out DVDs in the beginning. What he missed was the insight that people didn’t want to leave their houses to watch a movie and they didn’t want to get to the store and be disappointed when their movie was “sold out” when they reached the store.  Customers don’t always know how to articulate what they want in the future, but they are always good at telling you what they don’t like today. If he had just focused on asking his customers what they didn’t like about his product/service, he might have avoided this disastrous outcome. Correction/Prevention: Encourage a culture of continuous learning within your team and be open to pivot strategies when necessary.  Get to the pain point of the customer, rather than simply having your strengths constantly reinforced. Find the people who find fault with your approach and listen to them.  Too often we shun these people as “whingers” because they don’t reinforce our ideas, but they can often be the “canary in the coalmine” and can highlight potential risks and threats in advance.
2. Neglecting Company Culture
Example: If you haven’t seen “Super Pumped” the Uber documentary… It’s well worth a viewing.  Uber’s Travis Kalanick faced significant backlash due to neglecting company culture, leading to accusations of fostering a toxic work environment. This ultimately resulted in his resignation.   Correction/Prevention: Company culture is led from the top down.  The CEO (of all people) needs to embody the values of the business and act accordingly.  Actively work to understand and shape your company’s culture by doing, not saying.  Your values need to be specific and team-related – Always Hustlin’ (which was one of Ubers) has more of a connection with a street hustler, so no wonder the employees were living a “cowboy” culture.
3. Poor Communication
Example: Tony Hayward, the former CEO of BP, made several communication blunders following the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, including the infamous “I want my life back” comment, which showed a lack of empathy and significantly hurt the company’s image.We’ve all recently witnessed the departure of the Woolworths CEO after a similar gaffe. Correction/Prevention: Be clear, honest, and empathetic in your communication. Put your team and your customers first. Always consider how your comments will be perceived by different stakeholders and think ahead.  You don’t always have to be the “constant apologiser” either.  If your style as a CEO is to be frank, blunt and brutal (Elon Musk is a good example), then be that person all the time. Be prepared for the backlash, but be authentic and your audience will appreciate it.  Consumers and shareholders have come to accept this type of CEO.  You need to decide what kind of CEO you want to be and work to that.
4. Ignoring Customer Feedback
Example: Kodak has to be the quintessential textbook example of owning the golden goose and then killing it. Kodak invented the digital camera – Kodak engineer Steve Sassoninvented the digital camera in the 1970s. Kodak’s leadership rejected the digital camera, fearing it would cannibalise existing business. Sasson was quoted as saying, “It was filmless photography, so management’s reaction was, ‘That’s cute, but don’t tell anyone about it.’” Kodak’s executives ignored the shift towards digital photography and the increasing demand for it from their customer base, leading to the company’s bankruptcy.
Correction/Prevention: Be prepared to cannibalise your own business, even if that’s going to hurt you in the short term. If that’s what the customer wants, then do it. If you don’t… someone else will.  
5. Resisting Technological Advances
Example: Nokia and Blackberry’s leadership underestimated the importance of smartphones and the software that powered them, a mistake that allowed competitors like Apple and Samsung to step in and dominate the market. They were so tied to their own innovation, which let’s face it, ran out years before they went under, that they refused to embrace the smartphone era. Correction/Prevention: Stay technologically literate and be open to integrating new technologies into your business model. AI is the biggest technological shift since the Industrial Revolution.  If you lived in the era of the horse and cart and you failed to adapt to the car, that’s on you.
6. Overlooking Talent Management
Example: Yahoo’s inability to retain and attract key talent under the leadership of various CEOs contributed to its decline. This included the loss of employees who went on to found major tech companies, including Facebook, WhatsApp and Slack.  Correction/Prevention: Invest in your people. Develop a strong talent management strategy that includes nurturing, retaining, and attracting top talent. They need to be tied to your business financially and emotionally.  They need to have a clear view of what their future looks like, as well as the future of the business.  Clear direction, clear goals and clear succession.
7. Failing to Delegate
Example: Martha Stewart’s control over her company, Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, was so comprehensive that her prison sentence for insider trading left the company directionless and led to significant financial losses. Correction/Prevention: Learn to delegate effectively. Learn to trust your team and allow them to take ownership of their work. This not only empowers your team but also allows you to focus on strategic planning. Staying in the weeds is a career-limiting move, as it keeps you focused on too much execution and not enough high-level strategy.  
8. Misjudging the Competition
Example: Retail Chain – Sears’ executives failed to adequately respond to the rise of e-commerce and discount retailers, incorrectly believing their diversified business model was sufficient to protect them. Several large retailers across the globe were slow to react to e-commerce and ended up playing catch up, which some might argue, they still haven’t caught up to e-commerce natives like Amazon. Correction/Prevention: Keep a close eye on the competition. Don’t ignore a threat just because they haven’t achieved scale yet.  Conduct regular market analysis and be prepared to adjust your business strategy to remain competitive.  Be prepared to fail, but be prepared to try.
9. Ethical Lapses
Example: Enron’s top executives, including CEO Jeffrey Skilling, engaged in fraudulent practices that led to the company’s collapse and tarnished its reputation. Correction/Prevention: Eventually you’ll be caught.  Assume everything you do will one day be splashed across every news channel with your name attached to it. Assume the worst. The only thing you truly own in business is your reputation, so guard it you’re your life. Foster an environment where ethical conduct is rewarded, and misconduct is quickly addressed. 10. Lack of Strategic Vision Example: Ron Johnson’s tenure as CEO of J.C. Penney is often criticized for his failure to develop a strategic vision that resonated with the company’s core customer base, leading to a significant decline in sales. Correction/Prevention: Develop a clear, forward-thinking strategic vision. Make sure this vision is bold and disruptive and it doesn’t have to make sense! Small innovation yields small results.  Obvious innovation is easily adopted because it’s safe. The biggest risk is taking no risk! Once you’ve picked your new lane, it’s your role to engage with employees at all levels to ensure alignment and commitment to this vision. If it’s not a “hard sell” then the idea isn’t big enough. The path of a senior executive is fraught with potential missteps, each carrying the weight of consequences. However, by learning from the examples of others and adhering to strategies of adaptation, ethical leadership, customer focus, and technological embracement, senior executives can navigate their careers towards success and fulfilment. Always remember, that the most significant growth often comes from overcoming the biggest challenges.

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