Earl Breon

Ladies and gentlemen, let me paint a picture for you. The year is 1983 and you are a super fit, well geared, and highly trained ultra-marathon runner. You are getting ready for a 544 mile race from Sydney to Melbourne, Australia. You are mulling about with your peers, rubbing elbows with everybody who you know is at least as prepared as you are. You see an array of high end athletic brands on display. It is a stereotypical marathon.

But then you start to hear some murmuring. “He’s how old?” Your interest is piqued. “He’s wearing what?” Okay, now you have to see what the commotion is about.

Technological excellence through leadership and core values is the goal of any organization that hopes to be successful. So, it is no surprise that some of America’s tech firms are not only leading the way in life altering innovation but they are blazing news trail in organizational leadership. From thought leadership to cultural leadership these organizations are changing how the world views everything. But the question is, “How do tech organizations achieve excellence through leadership?

Apple changed how we view phones. Facebook changed how we socialize. Amazon changed how we shop. Microsoft changed how we use computers. Oracle changed how we network. IBM changed how we compute. Google changed how we find information.

What do shooting a gun, playing quarterback, golf and leadership all have in common? We will answer that at the end but you’ll likely figure it out pretty quickly. Here’s a hint, it has to do with fundamentals and properly applying them.

So, lets dive right in and get to the answer!

Being a good leader is tricky. There are a lot of things you need to do in order to successfully lead your team. There may be more things you shouldn’t do. Over the course of this post we will discuss five of those things you should not do and why they are killing your leadership and hurting your team.

You may be making one or more of these mistakes but you, and only you, can fix them. So, lets dive right in!