MediumHoarding in Summer. One leadership mistake of many. | by Matt Schellhas | Jul, 2026 | MediumSitemapOpen in appSign up<br>Sign in

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Hoarding in Summer

One leadership mistake of many.

Matt Schellhas

4 min read·<br>3 hours ago

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Photo by Sandi Mager on Unsplash

There’s all sorts of ways that leaders make mistakes, and thus create problems for themselves and their organizations. They are still people after all, rarely have much training, and have ample opportunity. Today we’re going to cover a rough categorization of them. But first, let’s be clear about one important not-mistake:<br>A great big part of leading is making bets . Where to lead others. How to lead emotional, unpredictable humans. What the unknowable future may hold. Which of the many, many problems to tackle when you can’t come close to solving all of them.<br>And even good bets don’t always pay off.<br>So looking around at the available information, making the best bet you can, and executing it to the best of your capability is not a mistake . Even if that good bet doesn’t end in success. Even if “best” is debatable in the moment.<br>What is a mistake then? There’s five rough categories I’ve seen across my nearly thirty year career:<br>Overestimating their ability. The most common mistake that leaders make is taking on some task that is beyond their skill. This isn’t just a “if I execute this to the best of my ability, there’s a 50/50 chance of success” scenario. That’s defensible. There’s a bunch of scenarios where 50/50 is great odds! The…

Written by Matt Schellhas<br>797 followers<br>·14 following

Dour, opinionated leader of software engineers.

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