50 Insane Mistakes Companies Make

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

Original post by Frank Sonnenberg