Some strategies have become part of traditional practices, but that doesn’t make them effective. As industries evolve and the business market changes, leadership styles should adjust with the times. Inc. writer Geoffrey James details the worst management fads and why you should ease away from them:
Fad 1. Best Practices: For decades, management pundits have insisted it’s possible to become successful by imitating the strategies and tactics of existing firms that are already successful. There’s only one problem with this strategy: it doesn’t work.
The most highly successful companies—Apple, Coke, IBM, P&G, etc.—tend to be one-of-a-kind. The strategies that work (or worked) for them aren’t likely to work in a different industry or for a smaller firm.
What’s worse, the “successful” firms featured in such books are often past their prime anyway. The seminal “best practices” book In Search of Excellence is a case in point. Most of the companies featured in the book did terribly after the book came out.