50 Insane Mistakes Companies Make

Everyone makes mistakes, but some are real whoppers. They can torpedo any great organization. How many of these occur in your organization?

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50 Insane Mistakes Companies Make

1. Holding meetings for the sake of holding meetings.
2. Adopting a compensation plan that no one understands.
3. Copying the competition, yet expecting to surpass them.
4. Treating employees as a cost rather than as an asset.
5. Failing to reprimand unethical behavior for fear of short-term consequences.
6. Increasing executive compensation while cutting employee salaries.
7. Trying to “fake” the ability to deliver a service.
8. Introducing a new technology without teaching employees how to use it.
9. Valuing a one-time sales transaction over a lasting customer relationship.
10. Promoting a person with good performance but poor integrity.
11. Failing to implement improvements because they’re deemed to be too small.
12. Starving key initiatives because resources are spread equally across the board.
13. Preaching from an ivory tower about what the “real world” is like to people in the trenches.
14. Failing to reward an exceptional performer more than a mediocre one.
15. Terminating an employee via email or voicemail.
16. Assuming that communication can be controlled.
17. Failing to offer constructive input during employee evaluations.
18. Encouraging innovation while penalizing failure.
19. Failing to recognize the connection between happy at home, happy at work.
20. Allowing plenty of time to fix problems but not enough time to do it right in the first place.
21. Failing to recognize the cost of mistrust, bureaucracy, and red tape.
22. Taking employees and customers for granted.
23. Believing that money is the only motivator.
24. Failing to capitalize on the power of word of mouth.
25. Working hard to attract new customers while doing little to keep them.
26. Believing strongly in maintaining equipment but not in training employees.
27. Talking about the best thing to do but then failing to do it.
28. Spending an exorbitant amount of time and effort on internal presentations.
29. Failing to unleash the entrepreneurial spirit of employees.
30. Maintaining multiple business units that work at cross-purposes with each other.
31. Promoting people based on politics rather than ability and performance.
32. Spending heavily on advertising while cutting customer service.
33. Rewarding “yes” people and then expecting fresh ideas.
34. Making everything a priority, which means that nothing is a priority.
35. Managing by assumption rather than basing decisions on real information.
36. Making promises knowing they can’t be fulfilled.
37. Fighting progress by saying “we’ve always done it this way.”
38. Thinking they can cut their way to greatness.
39. Spending more time putting out fires rather than lighting them.
40. Adding quality control inspectors rather than designing properly from the start.
41. Trying to control the uncontrollable.
42. Allowing one person to undo what someone else just completed.
43. Failing to communicate the rationale behind decisions.
44. Taking action without first understanding the situation.
45. Failing to monitor corporate vital signs.
46. Beating up suppliers and then expecting their loyalty.
47. Introducing performance rewards that are inconsistent with business goals.
48. Addressing all areas of cost except apathy.
49. Saying “yes” to low-priority opportunities.
50. Enforcing rules that everyone knows don’t make sense.

Additional Reading:
Where Did the Time Go?
How to Destroy Creativity and Innovation
13 Elements of a Great Strategy
Trust Me: 55 Ways to Build Trust and Credibility
Leadership Scorecard

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