The television show, The Office, ran for 9 seasons — from 2005 to 2013. A mockumentary sitcom, the show featured the everyday work lives of the Scranton, Pennsylvania branch of the Dunder Mifflin Paper Company. Michael Scott, played by comedian Steve Carell, was The Office’s bumbling leader.

I’ve watched several re-runs of The Office, as my daughter and her friends have been obsessed with the show. Time and again, Michael Scott exhibits a number of leadership habits that prevent him from leading the team properly and moving up the Dunder Mifflin corporate ladder.

7 Leadership Habits That Are Holding You Back

There are 7 leadership habits that held Michael Scott back and may be holding you back from taking on additional leadership responsibilities.

1. Winning too much — a leader who tries to win in any situation and at all costs fails to prioritize and can exhaust his team in his or her relentless pursuit of victory.

   As Michael said “You need to play to win. But you also need to win… to play.”

2. Adding too much value — a leader that adds their thoughts to every conversation is really trying to make the conversation about themselves.

   “Sometimes I’ll start a sentence and I don’t even know where it is going. I just hope to find it along the way,” said Michael.

3. Making destructive comments — leaders who use sarcasm and insults destroy the team’s and worker’s morale.

   Michael once asked one of the team to “Explain it to me like an eight-year old.”

4. Telling the world how smart you are — a leader’s desire to show the team how intelligent they are. It can lead to

   “Oh god, my mind is going a mile an hour,” Michael once said.

5. Failing to give proper recognition — a leader who can’t praise others work is challenging to work for.

   Michael once confided that “…it’s not like this compulsive need to be liked. Like my need to be praised.” Sometimes Michael couldn’t praise others; especially, Toby, the head of HR for the Scranton branch.

6. Making excuses — a leader who fails to take accountability for things that turn out poorly destroys the morale of the team.

   After Stanley (one of the members of Dunder Mifflin sales team) had a heart attack, Michael tried to admit his lack of accountability by saying, “And I knew exactly what to do. But in a much more real sense, I had no idea what to do.”

7. Not listening — a leader who doesn’t listen to the team or a worker is disrespecting them and saying that their ideas don’t have merit.

   Michael once said “Don’t listen to your critics. Listen to your fans.” He only got half of it right. You need to listen to your entire team.

Executive Coaching

One means of eliminating a habit which is holding back your leadership potential is to enlist an executive coach. I am currently working with several clients to enhance their leadership potential. Recently, Noah Kirsch wrote an article for The Daily Beast on executive coaching (I was interviewed for this article but was not quoted):

Inside the Weird, High-Powered World of Executive Coaches

If you’d like some more ideas on how to improve yourself take a look at my book, Grow Your Grit, available for sale at Amazon. Or reach out to me here to start the discussion about executive coaching and enhancing your leadership skills.

Conclusion

Michael Scott exhibited bad leadership traits and we laughed at it. Don’t be a leader like Michael Scott. Go on the offense, assess yourself, determine which leadership behavior is holding you back, and work to eliminate it in 2022.