A research organization asked several thousand people, "What are the most serious faults of executives in dealing with their associates and subordinates?" What do you think was mentioned most often? Here is the list. I will start at the most infrequent and go up:

• 15% Bias and letting emotions rule
• 15% Indecision
• 21% Miscellaneous, including lack of courtesy, sarcasm, jealousy, nervousness, losing of temper, etc
• 17% Failure to delegate authority
• 17% Arrogance
• 17% Arbitrariness
• 19% Lack of frankness and sincerity
• 24% Lack of leadership
• 34% Failure to size up employees correctly
• 36% Failure to show appreciation or give credit
• 68% Failure to see the other person's point of view

The fault cited most often, as the survey shows, was failure to see the other person's point of view. Leaders have a great responsibility to listen and understand those they lead. It was mentioned nearly twice as often as appreciation or giving credit.