The 12 bad habits of otherwise good people

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The 12 bad habits of otherwise good people

• Based on the book by Waldroop and Butler

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Why do people fail?

• Research by Waldroop and Butler reveals 12
  interesting patterns.
• If we realise these patterns and take preventive
  steps, the failure rate can be reduced
  significantly.

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The 12 character types

• The home-run hitter
• The meritocrat
• The peacekeeper
• The hero
• The rebel
• Mr Spock

• The acrophobe
• Pessimist worrier
• Bulldozer
• The could have been
• Lacking a sense of boundaries
• Losing the path

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The home-run hitter

• Successful people do not take excessive risk.
• They try to hit singles and doubles before
  hitting sixes.
• But the home-run hitters are too impatient for
  that.
• Often such persons are overly competitive and
  want to win the game single-handedly to show
  everyone concerned that they are stars.
• They want extraordinary and immediate success.
• Small accomplishments will not do.

5
The meritocrat

• Such people insist that proposals, ideas and
  products must be considered strictly on their
  inherent merit, on their absolute true value.
• Despite having finished their formal education a
  long time ago, they have not made the shift from
  the world of school, where the right answer is
  sufficient, to one in which they have to persuade
  others of their ideas' merit.
• They may even be proud of their refusal to "play
  politics.
• Due to their rigid ways of thinking they fail to
  demonstrate their value to upper management.

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The Peacekeeper

• Peacekeepers are ineffective simply because they
  are afraid of getting into a fight.
• Usually they lack the skill to argue their point
  without becoming defensive and to resume a normal
  relationship once the argument has been won or
  lost.
• Such people act out of fear or compulsion.
• They act by suppressing natural reactions and
  emotions and thereby increasing the tension in a
  group or relationship as unvoiced feelings or
  reactions are swept under the carpet.
• They usually have high need for affiliation and
  want to be liked by people around.
• Peacekeeping blocks the healthy differences of
  opinion and their resolution.
• The peace comes at a high cost.

7
The hero

• Heroes get the job done, but usually at great
  cost to themselves and others.
• Heroes bite off more than they can chew.
• Money does not attract them. What attracts them
  is the unattainable.
• Heroes refuse to accept that anyone else can do
  the job as well as they can. So they are often
  micromanagers.
• Though they often win the admiration of their
  bosses, heroes sometimes run into trouble for
  failing to consult them or keep them informed.
• At the same time, when they're asked to do the
  impossible, they can't say no, or at least say
  that it will take a bit longer than scheduled
• Heroes often suffer burnout, and their personal
  relationships suffer. Their marriages may run
  into trouble because of work life imbalance.
• Once their reputation as slave drivers spreads,
  they have difficulty getting people to work for
  them.

8
The rebel

• Rebels refuse to adapt to the surrounding
  culture. (In a smaller number of cases they are
  simply oblivious to it.)
• They may see themselves as change agents or, like
  the meritocrats, proudly refuse to play along.
• Rebels tend to do best early in their careers
  when their rebelliousness can be written off as
  youthful exuberance and in industries where
  rebelliousness is common and valued.
• But over time, by making those around them
  uncomfortable, they become ostracized and are
  often in the end dismissed.
• Often rebels at some point tend to say or do
  something that almost literally destroys them.

9
Mr Spock

• Spock the character on the television program
  Star Trek expressed few emotions himself and had
  little regard for those of others.
• A Spock makes business decisions without
  realizing the need to take into account how
  people are going to feel about them, even though
  the decisions may make sense on every other
  level.
• Such people repress their own emotions so much
  that they cannot hear or see what others do.
• They invade others space or respond without a
  trace of empathy when people express difficulty.
• They have trouble in communicating effectively
  and establishing good interpersonal
  relationships.

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The acrophobe

• More than any other factor, people's image of
  themselves determines how high they go.
• When people cannot envision themselves in a
  prominent position, they'll either sabotage their
  chances on the way there or do something to
  imperil their standing once, somehow, they have
  arrived.
• Of all Achilles' heels, this "fear of heights" is
  the most subtle and difficult to spot--and treat.
  
• Such people because of lack of self esteem
  undermine and hold themselves back.
• They never rise out of their comfort level.

11
Pessimist worrier

• These people have a completely pessimistic view
  of life.
• They are always imagining negative outcomes.
• They keep seeing the negative and worrying about
  it to excess.
• They are afraid to take risk
• They tend to procrastinate
• They prefer to take the blame for not getting the
  job done than risk a negative judgment.
• They have an instinctive fear of change.
• They have over identification with an
  organisation that provides a safe secure identity.

12
Bulldozer

• These are people who keep talking and acting
  tough
• They are bullying people
• They take a win lose perspective.
• They have poor listening skills
• They tend to do well early in their career as
  their actions are not visible to top management
  and they are effective at getting things done.
• Over time they become unpopular loners.
• They also make enemies who are waiting for a
  chance to get back.

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The could have been

• Such people are paralysed by fear of shame and
  failure.
• The psychological consequences of slogging
  towards the summit and not making it are so
  terrible that the person is unable even to start.
• They may start a project without too much
  preparation. If it goes well, they can claim it
  was effortless. And if it does not go off well,
  they can always rationalise.
• When presented with a risky opportunity , they
  will decline. Their explanation is that they
  could do it if they wanted to but for various
  seemingly justifiable reasons they have decided
  not to.
• They perceive more of a downside to failure than
  an upside to success.

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Lacking a sense of boundaries

• Such people dont understand what belongs to
  office and what to home.
• They crave affiliation and intimacy.
• They cannot wait for an occasion to share
  inappropriate information about themselves.
• They have the mistaken belief that if they tell
  everything about themselves, others will
  reciprocate and this will lead to a close
  friendship.
• They get involved in others affairs to an extent
  that they are seen as meddling.
• They completely misinterpret the boundary
  inherent in boss subordinate relationship.

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Losing the path

• Some people have a loss of a sense of direction
• There is misalignment between underlying
  interests and activities of the job.
• They have a sense of powerlessness
• They nurture a feeling of being
  ignored/marginalised/falling behind
• They show lethargy
• They experience stress/ anxiety/depression

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Concluding remarks

• The character types described above are all
  self-destructive.
• But the situation is not beyond redemption.
• Mere awareness can help a great deal.
• Awareness should be followed by a disciplined
  approach to practising the desired behaviour.
• It helps to have a mentor, coach, or confidant to
  help monitor behavior and give feedback.
• With the right amount of self-awareness and
  motivation, habits one did not even suspect were
  causing trouble can be gradually brought under
  control

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Thank You