Self-Handicapping Leadership: The Nine Behaviors Holding Back Employees, Managers, and Companies, and How to Overcome Them

TRANSFORM CULTURES OF FAILURE INTO CULTURES OF SUCCESS!

Get people to reengage—and solve problems instead of creating them!

Model and propagate better ways to lead and collaborate

Escape the killer ERO Spiral (Excuses, Reduced Effort, Obstacles)

For leaders and managers in any organization!

Every day, millions of employees watch their leaders sabotage themselves. They watch, they learn, and then they do it, too. Next thing you know, everyone’s lost motivation, and nobody takes ownership. That’s how organizations fail. This book will help you break the vicious cycle of self-handicapping leadership in

your organization, stop the excuses, and unleash all the performance your team is capable of delivering.

 

Phil and Jordan reveal how and why people handicap themselves even when they know better. Next, they offer real solutions from their own pioneering researchand consulting. You’ll find practical ways to strengthen accountability andself-awareness, recognize the “big picture,” improve decision-making, deepentrust and engagement, develop talent, escape micromanagement, and focusrelentlessly on outcomes.

 

Your colleagues can be far more effective, and so can you. In fact, it starts with you—right here, right now, with this book.

 

Many leaders inadvertently create cultures of failure. They model and promote “selfhandicapping” actions, where people withdraw effort or create new problems, in order to maintain their own self-images of competence. Self-Handicapping Leadership shines the spotlight on this widespread and destructive phenomenon and presents real action plans for overcoming it.

 

Phillip J. Decker and Jordan P. Mitchell identify nine categories of self-handicapping, show how they typically manifest themselves, explain their underlying causes, and provide behavioral remedies for getting past them on both an individual and organizational level. They address issues ranging from tunnel vision to poor coaching and mentoring, weak decision analysis to failures of trust and conviction.

 

In each chapter, you’ll find real-world examples and lessons learned, practical assessments, and easy-to-use action plans. This is all you need to eliminate self-handicapping and unleash better performance: in teams, organizations, subordinates—and most importantly, in yourself!

 

Overcome the 9 self-handicapping behaviors that lead to failure:

• Avoiding Accountability
• Tunnel Vision
• Lack of Awareness
• Poor Analysis & Decision Making
• Poor Communication Culture
• Poor Engagement
• Poor Talent Development
• Micromanaging
• Not Driving for Results

Web site: shleadership.com

Email: shleadership@gmail.com

Blog: shleadership.com/blog

Facebook: facebook.com/selfhandicappingleadership

 

Phillip J. Decker, PhD, is a Professor in the Business School at the University of Houston, Clear Lake, Texas Medical Center. Following his discharge from the US Navy, where he was a nuclear non-destructive test specialist working on submarines, Dr. Decker received his PhD in Industrial/Organizational Psychology from The Ohio State University. He has consulted in numerous Fortune 100 companies and hundreds of hospitals, been an expert witness in EEO cases, testified before Congressional committees, and consulted internationally. Dr. Decker has published over 90 articles and written 13 books in management, human resources management, and leadership. And, he is still working to overcome all of his self-handicapping.

 

Jordan Mitchell, PhD, is an Assistant Professor in the Business School at the University of Houston, Clear Lake, Texas Medical Center. Dr. Mitchell received his PhD in Health Services Policy and Management from the University of South Carolina. He has authored and co-authored peer-reviewed journal articles, federally funded technical reports, and conference proceedings in the fields of finance, information management, and rural health. Finally, he believes that if leaders can recognize their self-handicapping, they can overcome it.