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Know the 5 sad excuses we use to ignore leadership development.

Know the 5 sad excuses we use to ignore leadership development.


Did you know to be effective, it is imperative to avoid these 5 sad excuses we use to ignore leadership development?
It turns out foundational leadership skills insure you improve performance on key metrics or stats of your performance in your business and job. They insure execution across your business processes (game plans or play books). And they engage employees and inspire yourself to new heights in performance.
Just like in sports leadership can create havoc on the field or create a fine tuned team and high performance. Team coaches would not be tolerated if they used the same excuses we use to ignore leadership development.

5 Sad Excuses we use to ignore leadership development

After, listening to numerous excuses from countless company owners and professionals on why leadership is important but not important enough to develop, I’ve captured a few of my personal favorites.

“It takes a certain person to be successful. It takes just the right person.”

Not necessarily so in many business situations. In reality, it turns out you develop the best leaders. They are the people who are willing to develop leadership and business skills. This means they are willing to know themselves extremely well and are willing to continuously learn. (Innermetrix survey and analysis results from 197,000 professionals).

“I can’t find the right people.”

Yes, that can be a challenge. However, there are companies out there that do find good people and then develop them. It can be done. It is a strategic marketing and sales effort aimed at building and developing a team. That takes excellent leadership skills.

“All I need, is to focus on production. The rest will happen.”

Yes, being skilled at your trade is important, however, running a successful company means being skilled in leadership and business management. You need both for sustained profitability.

“I’m just too busy.”

Read this as, “I’m too busy to insure long term success.” Being too busy indicates poor decision making and planning reflected in overbooking and not planning for the next season (of changes in business). Excellent leadership and business management in daily operations is crucial. It is also crucial to keep a sharp eye on the near future and distant future as a leader. Where is the company going? Who will take over? Are we prepared for growth, for a slow down, for a transition?

“I am a good leader. I’ve been doing it for 30 years.”

Doing a task for a long time does not mean mastery has developed. Mastery requires intentional focus on development. Humility about what you know and don’t know is imperative. That’s why the best believe in continuous improvement in their craft, business skills and leadership skills. The mediocre stay where they are.

Never Fear. Knowing your strengths is here.

Happy FaceThe best run companies know what they are good at and what they are not good at. They know, accept, and focus on their strengths.
My mentor would tell me time and time again that success always comes down to execution. It’s hard to execute well when you have no talent or strength in an area. Executing well when it’s aligned with a talent and strength is much easier, even fun, and profitable. You are wasting everyone’s time focusing on weaknesses and blind spots.
It turns out to execute well, you need to know yourself well. Know your strengths, talents, weaknesses and blind spots.
Accept them. Align them. Execute to them. Easy. At least in principle.

To learn more

Phil Bride helping professionals and business owners sharpen the fundamentals of business management.

Phil Bride helping professionals and business owners sharpen the fundamentals of business management.


Give me a call at 503-753-9971 or contact me at Phil@PhilBride.com and let’s spend a few minutes to talk about your situation.
If you are ready to take time to work on the fundamentals of business management…

Take 30 minutes and let’s talk. It’s complimentary.


Up your game. Make things happen.

“Dominate your life with Focus, Decision and Execution.”