The Top Ten Mistakes Leaders Make

by Hans Finzel

The Top Ten Mistakes Leaders Make starts by explaining the bad habits many of us have observed in our leaders and have perhaps fallen into ourselves. Finzel offers ideas for changes in leadership styles in the interest of creating a more dynamic work environment.

Genres: Leadership, Business, Nonfiction, Christian, Management, Self Help, Ebooks

Hardcover

First published January 31, 1994

Reviews

[Mark A Powell · Rating 2 out of 5]

The basic principles are sound and if you are reading this to become a better leader in a business or office environment, much here will be helpful.

But as a textbook for a pastoral ministry class, it is woefully incapable of identifying and explaining the most vital parts of that role. Far better resources exist for men called to pastor.

[Ted Tyler · Rating 5 out of 5]

"The greater our sphere of leadership influence, the higher our impact on the world around us. And the more people we lead, the greater the potential damage caused through our poor decisions and action. This is one of the sobering realities we must face when we accept the mantle of leadership."

"Leaders of Christian enterprises tend to be spiritually qualified but often organizationally illiterate. The problem is, leadership requires both the heart and the head."

Hans Finzel led the parachurch ministry WorldVenture for a number of years. Throughout his time, he reflects on the mistakes he and others have made as leaders. What I appreciated about the book is Finzel's practicality, willingness to "not be the hero" of every story he tells, and the reflective nature of the book. I walked away thinking about my own leadership mistakes and the ways that others helped me improve and get better.

[Jeremiah Gumm · Rating 4 out of 5]

I picked this book up after one of those moments in ministry when you say to yourself, “If I could only go back and do that over again…” I’ve read plenty of other books on leadership by writers like John Maxwell and Aubrey Malphurs, but this book seemed to be more about applying leadership principles than trying to figure out what kind of leader you need to be. It’s a 2007 updated version of the original 1995 book. The author himself recognizes, though, that the top ten mistakes leaders make are still the same (221). It is not a “new and improved” edition. It does have a decidedly Christian point of view. Finzel is the head of Worldventure, which is a Baptist organization devoted to planting missions around the world and equipping Christian leaders, not only in the church, but in other areas of life.

Hans Finzel explains the purpose of this book early, “This book is not intended to answer the question of leadership scarcity, but rather to look at what makes a good leader go bad, or better yet, what habits to avoid if you want to help fill the gap and replenish the great leadership famine. It is a resource book for anyone in any kind of leadership role” (15). That purpose shows itself in the set-up of every chapter. Each chapter starts out with the challenge or bad habit, tries to identify how a leader can “go bad” in that situtation, discusses what a leader needs to keep in mind to address that challenge, and then wraps it up not only with final summary thoughts, but with a well-organized section at the end of each chapter entitled “Quick Tips for Leaders on the Go” for future reference.

Finzel defines leadership in two ways: “Leadership is influence” (emphasis his) and “A leader takes people where they would never go on their own” (19). This flows out of the “transformational” school of thought on leadership, which emphasizes the traits of leaders combined with their leadership situation. Upon the reading the book, however, one finds answers from other schools of thought. For example, when it comes to style of leadership, Finzel discusses a leader’s concern for the task or for the people, which comes from the behavioral school of thought (29-32). (He even cites Douglas MacGregor’s “Theory X” and “Theory Y” portrayals of managers—a major study in this school of thought). In another chapter entitled “Dirty Delegation”, Finzel discusses how there are four basic leadership styles that could be drawn upon to deal with contrasting situations, which comes from the Situational/Contingency school of thought (121-123). (He cites Hersey & Blanchard’s 1977 study on leadership style and situation—a major study in that school of thought). In the end, I think Finzel does an excellent job of using the best from each of the main leadership theories out there to address each of the mistakes leaders make. At the same time, he weaves in basic Christian leadership principles and biblical examples throughout.

Here are the ten mistakes/chapters in numerical order…
1. The Top-Down Attitude: The Number One Leadership Hang-Up
2. Putting Paperwork Before Peoplework: Confessions of a Type A Personality
3. The Absence of Affirmation: What Could Be Better Than a Pay Raise?
4. No Room for Mavericks: They Bring Us the Future!
5. Dictatorship in Decision Making: Getting Beyond “I Know All the Answers”
6. Dirty Delegation: Refusing to Relax and Let Go
7. Communication Chaos: Singing from the Same Page in the Hymnal
8. Missing the Clues of Corporate Culture: The Unseen Killer of Many Leaders
9. Success Without Successors: Planning Your Departure the Day You Start
10. Failure to Focus on the Future: Prepare Yourself—It’s Later Than You Think

I really appreciated the very practical approach that Finzel took to addressing these bad habits that leaders can typically have, including shepherds of God’s people. Perhaps his years of experience with both the business world and with establishing missions around the world enabled him to provide this kind of insight. Personally, I found it to be one of the best, most satisfying books on leadership from a Christian perspective that I have read in recent memory. He seemed to get to the nuts and bolts of each problem in a way that helped me to see and understand these common leadership mistakes much more clearly. Yes, he cited the social science studies on leadership, but he used them together with practical examples to illustrate his point. Unlike other leadership books, he didn’t lose my attention by overdoing the practical examples or wading too far into the deep waters of social science. Above all, I appreciated his Christian perspective and emphasis on servant leadership. He often pointed to Christ as our true Leader and readily recognized that at the heart of these mistakes is sin—a reality often ignored even in most Christian leadership books.

As I mentioned, this book was more satisfying than others on Christian leadership that I’ve read in the past, but at the same time, it didn’t completely satisfy. Finzel’s Baptist/Evangelical roots did come out on occasion, as did his business background. Obviously he is writing for leaders in business and some of his suggestions or solutions would definitely not be practical in a ministry setting, unless we would compromise our doctrine and practice in certain ways. As with most other Christian leadership books I’ve read, Finzel tended to use Christ more as example of good habits of a good leader than Christ as Savior and that his Gospel is the only means that can truly transform sinful human beings into truly Christian leaders whatever their vocation.
All in all, this is one of the top 2-3 books that I would recommend for Christian leaders simply from a practical point of view. It obviously needs to be read with discernment (and perhaps someday someone could finally write a book on Christian leadership from a solid confessional Lutheran point-of-view with a proper emphasis on Christ and the Gospel!), but a Christian leader in a variety of settings could take much good from this book that could be used in real-life leadership.

[Review written for NT9077 "The Leadership of St. Paul" - Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary online course:]

[Michael · Rating 5 out of 5]

Tough to read about leadership failures, Finzel presents each mistake with personal illustrations and rationale for why the mistake is so prevalent. While reading my personal leadership mistakes were easily recognizable. Thankfully, leadership mistakes are correctable with effort and wisdom.

Best Chapters:

2. Putting Paperwork Before Peoplework

3. The Absence of Affirmation

6. Dirty Delegation

9. Success Without Successors

[Christopher Hopper · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mandatory reading for any of my church or business staff. Core values essential for making consistent, rightly-motivated decisions that put people above policies. Has helped me avoid many of the natural pitfalls that we Type-A, high-capacity, driven creatives fall into as managers.

[Daniel Edwards · Rating 2 out of 5]

Finzel offers some helpful leadership principles, but overall the book was merely "ok." The writing was lacking at a number of points and the chapters were repetitious. This book doesn't deserve much more than a skim.

[Ivan · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is a bit dated (1994), but still full of practical advice and good warnings.

[Stephanie · Rating 2 out of 5]

Yay! Free book!

[Tiffany · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was first published over 20 years ago. One of the interesting tests of leadership books intended to draw out principles is to evaluate them with the passage of time. In this case, the Top 10 mistakes noted in this book are just as applicable today as they were when the book was first published. The characterization of leadership hasn't changed though there are now generations in the workplace not anticipated when the book was first published and technological advances that couldn't have been imagined. For example, when asked by his board of directors what his greatest fear was for the organization, his response -- "My greatest fear is that we become irrelevant and obsolete. I don't want us to hand our phonograph records to a CD generation, or show home movies to world that is glued to their VCRs." We have now moved beyond CDs and VCRs but the underlying sentiment is as relevant, if not more more relevant in this age of constant technological disruption, now. Likewise, the external environments highlighted as creating turbulence included explosion of technology, changes in the political landscape, new relationships between the First and Third world countries, worldwide changes in societal values, the role of women, and the changing balance of financial wealth in the world. These factors haven't slowed down. If anything, they've accelerated. To fact that these factors at strongly at work today some 20+ years later adds to the value of the book.

The 10 mistakes would not come as a surprise to anyone who has studied leadership development. They are:

1. Top-Down Attitude
2. Putting Paperwork before Peoplework
3. The Absence of Affirmation
4. No Room for Mavericks
5. Dictatorship in Decision-Making
6. Dirty Delegation
7. Communication Chaos
8. Missing the Clues of Corporate Culture
9. Success without Successors
10. Failure to Focus on the Future

What is concerning is that we're now 20+ years removed with thousands of books written on these topics and thousands of hours (and uncalculated dollars) invested in leadership training and the same issues exist. It seems to me like we're trying to address character issues with a cosmetic makeover. Fortunately, this book doesn't shy away from the spiritual elements underlying leadership including highlighting issues whether in secular or Christian organizations calling out errors such as "theologizing our methodology" and "anchoring our identity in our work". Biblical principles that counter each of the mistakes is highlighted so that a leader can correct their thinking and lead as they ought.

[Levi Porter · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was fun to read because I've not thought about leadership, nor considered it for myself, since highschool.
Since I'm currently leading, and preparing for a life of leadership, it was refreshing to read about core things that will help me be a better leader for others to flourish well. It's fun to have a sense of calling and to read things to help you be better at it!
One thing that will be interesting as I head into the years before me, is I have been trained from a strong philosophically conservative view of culture and formation. By this I don't mean traditional, I mean rooted and grounded, resistant to change, seeking to preserve what's already good as the highest value. Think Wendell Berry. Think the whole western philosophical tradition prior to the Enlightenment began its destruction.
Finzel, by contrast, has a high value of change, and his last chapter goes so far as to say if you don't change and adapt with the times, you'll become obsolete. The clash here will require wisdom, but it's worth noting, I think, that Finzel may have been too caught up in the technological revolution. "The times are a changing," to quote Bob Dylan. He would of course agree that not all change is good change, but he would probably pursue change far more than my gut leaning would because I think what the next 10-15 years needs is good formation building and solid preservation and less frontierism. I think we've suffered from an endless pursuit of change that's untethered from the good things that have come before us. But this may very well just be a difference of cultural climate. He may say the exact same thing and still hold to his high value of change, because he's a good leader, and good leaders are always looking to see what needs to be changed, especially if that change is pulling back a bit on change.
I also plan to lead in the context of people formation and he primarily leads in the context of organizational function. That's an important difference.

[Barry Davis · Rating 5 out of 5]

In the forward to this extremely practical book, the author notes that in this newer edition, he wondered if he should adjust his list. No, he states in the forward, although he has found many more. Each of the ten chapters is structured similarly: after introducing each mistake with a title and a short phrase, the key points are listed at the start of the chapter (repeated at the end under the title “Quick Tips for Leaders on the Go.”). Each topic provides practical insights as well as Scripture verses that support the issue under consideration.

Here are Finzel’s ten mistakes:
1. The Top-Down Attitude - The number one leadership hang-up
2. Putting Paperwork Before Peoplework - Confessions of a Type A personality
3. The Absence of Affirmation - What could be better than a pay raise?
4. No Room for Mavericks - They bring us the future!
5. Dictatorship in Decision Making - Getting beyond “I know all the answers.”
6. Dirty Delegation - Refusing to relax and let go.
7. Communication Chaos - Singing from the same page in the hymnal.
8. Missing the Clues of Corporate Culture - The unseen killer of many leaders.
9. Success without Successors - Planning your departure the day you start.
10. Failure to Focus on the Future - Prepare yourself - it’s later than you think.

Rich with examples and pertinent quotes for each issue, this book provides tremendous insights on the key issues that can bankrupt anyone in leadership.

[Richard Angelus · Rating 4 out of 5]

In the Introduction, Finzel says: "Leadership can be dangerous. To understand this, study world history and the lives of great and terrible leaders and what they accomplished through others. We who are in leadership can, on one hand, move men, women, and mountains for tremendous good. On the other hand, we hold the power to do irreparable damage to our followers by the mistakes we make.”

From that premise, he lays out ten mistakes that leaders commonly make because they generally "fall into leadership" and "tend to do what comes naturally—we 'wing it'":

Mistake #1: Having a Top-Down Attitude
Mistake #2: Putting Paperwork before Peoplework
Mistake #3: The Absence of Affirmation
Mistake #4: Not Making Room for Mavericks
Mistake #5: Dictatorship in Decision Making
Mistake #6: Dirty Delegation
Mistake #7: Communication Chaos
Mistake #8: Missing the Clues of Corporate Culture
Mistake #9: Success without Successors
Mistake #10: Failure to Focus on the Future

To read my other book reviews/ summaries, CLICK HERE: https://legasitv.blogspot.com/search/...

[Christy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pretty good info for the first leadership specific book I can recall reading. Some felt outdated, some felt irrelevant to my setting, some definitely felt like Boomer advice to the youth. It kept kind of wondering since the book is older but not horribly outdated; it made a lot more sense when at the very end, the author mentioned this was a 2nd edition of an early 90’s book! Ok my bad, some of your outdated info wasn’t so outdated for the era it was written. Main points were good and an easy read for something I’d delayed reading about for fear that it would be painfully dry or irrelevant since I’m not in a straight business office environment. If anyone reads this review and wants to shoot me some really solid fresher recs, I’m here for it!

[Robby Grabow · Rating 4 out of 5]

Solid work on leadership that takes the perspective of traits to avoid.

Finzel's top 10 included:

1. Having a “Top Down” attitude

2. A 'Type A' Personality: Putting Paperwork before Peoplework
3. The Absence of Affirmation
4. Not Making Room for Mavericks
5. Dictatorship in Decision Making - "I Know All the Answers"
6. Dirty Delegation
7. Failure to Communicate
8. Missing the Clues of Corporate Culture
9. Success without successors
10. Failure to focus on the future

His section on making room for Mavericks and success without successors were particularly novel and enlightening.

For me personally, I thought about my tendency to "know all the answers" and how I can evolve to avoid this pitfall and continue to attract high caliber leaders on my teams and to collaborate with.

[Nickolas Wingholt · Rating 2 out of 5]

Just okay. So many of these kinds of books are just heavily derivative Christian spin-offs of Greenleaf's Servant Leadership, which itself is a great leadership principle that cries out for a more theological backbone. There were some good points here and there, but Finzel's seeking to cast a wide net just made me feel like these insights could be better received in other books that say it a lot clearer and closer to the actual Servant-King himself. For something in that vein, see Jones and Wilder, The God Who Goes Before You. 1st time read. 2/5.

[Steve Campbell · Rating 4 out of 5]

Finzel gets vulnerable and shares some of the mistakes he has made as a leader as well as mistakes commonly made by others. His writing style is accessible to the novice and experienced leader alike. At the end of each chapter, he provides a helpful summary for those who think they are too busy to read the whole chapter. The edition I read is an update of his original publication. It is well worth your time to check it out.

[Dee · Rating 4 out of 5]

Simple, basic stuff that every leader should know -- but very clearly and compellingly laid out. Christian-oriented. I did like the presentation of the information in terms of "mistakes" -- how many of us have learned leadership skills by watching and/or suffering through the experience of a very bad leader or boss and said, "I'll never do that!"

[Minh Quyen · Rating 3 out of 5]

As an atheist myself, reading the book till the end is hard. But the incredible way where Hans Finzel connects the story of his life and all the unfortunate or fortunate event with god messages really amaze me. I learnt a lot from this book and get better understanding of leaders position. Thank you for sharing us your experiences, hope our young generations will understand your message.

[Michael Burchfield · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found this book too broad for my purposes as a pastor, although his chapter on Success Without Successors was helpful (probably because that's the phase of leadership I find myself in at this time). If you are serving in management in a business or non-profit, you may find this work quite helpful - but as a pastor I look for books more specific to my vocation.

[Pat Baird · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is a book that I read for seminary! It holds a lot of great illustrations about leadership! I probably will not reread it again, but the book itself gives a lot of insights for leaders of various types of corporations to think through.

I am appreciative of Finzel’s work here and curious to see if I stumble across more of his work.

[Kagimu Brian · Rating 5 out of 5]

The fact that i aspire to be a leader and one that glorifies both God and serves people, i found this book to be on point. I believe am a better leader now and i hope to apply the many lessons in that book. Thank you

[Niko Hyppönen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mukavasti paketoituja johtamisen vinkkejä. Näihin vinkkeihin kuuluu muun muassa tasa-arvoinen suhtautuminen alaisiin ja eriävien mielipiteiden hyväksyminen. Kirja ei kuitenkaan tarjonnut mitään kovin uutta, siksi vain kolme tähteä.

[Mlbettin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great topics for managers or leaders to consider. Honestly the Ten Mistakes themselves were a breath of fresh air, this needs to be the Leadership 101 in any industry. The meat of the text, being strongly Christian, is not for everyone.

[Josh Orwick · Rating 4 out of 5]

Timeless but also relative to the changing leadership styles of today. Overall an all encompassing take on what a successful leader looks like in a flatter hierarchy and with a Christona mindset. Enjoyed the read and the integration of personal anecdotes along with the advice.

[Joshua Douglas · Rating 5 out of 5]

A Must Read

Influence in leadership is not only relegated to positive influence, but can come in the form of negative influence. Look to this book to help you harness the ability of self-awareness and avoid massive pitfalls as a leader.

[Josiah Young · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some helpful principles; a decent read if you move fast. Can’t seem to make up his mind about whether the target audience was supposed to be religious or secular. Repeats a lot of ideas from other people, with some good ones that are original.

[Ruth]

Excellent book with many helpful challenges to improve leadership skills. I found myself greatly challenged to implement a lot that the author put forth in this book. I’ll be going back to it often for reference.

[Jeff Turnbough · Rating 4 out of 5]

Finzel speaks from real life experience. I like his chapter on what to do with renegades.

[Eric Fults · Rating 3 out of 5]

4 stars for leadership insight but 2 stars for prooftexting Scripture for some of the insights = 3 stars. Great information on leadership, though! Would recommend.

[Elizabeth Van Gorp · Rating 2 out of 5]

I had to read this book for a class. My review: meh. At least it counted towards my reading challenge goal.