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Every movie director will have a specialty. Some directors pay more attention to the performances, some to production design, some put all the emphasis on the camera work. No matter what the differences may be amongst film directors, the one thing that will ultimately lead to their downfall is lack of people skills. Nothing is more indicative of the possibility of a filmmaker failing in the future as not knowing how to treat people.

Yelling, Poor Manners

Raising your voice without even knowing it and without provocation is a good way to alienate people. It is one thing if you scream rarely when the pressure is really high and time is running out, but to do it as a habit is not good. Interrupting people's conversations because you need to ask them something trivial right now is a great way to make people hate you, expecting to be treated like royalty is a great way to get people to pee in your coffee. Treat people the way you would if they could punch you in the face and you will probably be ok.

Withholding Praise

When people do a good job, they do not necessarily know it. If you see someone going above and beyond and impressing you, give them genuine compliments. There is a school of thought that praising people will make them work less hard, but many management theorists and I have not found this to be the case. Once people get some praise, they will want more. This encourages even better performance in order to get more praise. To get the best of your cast and crew: be hearty in your approbation and lavish in your praise.

Being The Idea Guy

Directors are the ultimate authority on the set, they make all the decisions. With the power to do it anyway they want it is tempting to indulge every whim. One of those whims might be to maintain the purity of your original idea for the film. People on film sets work long hours and do not get paid that well, a sure-fire way to keep your crew happy is to solicit and use their ideas. Instead of being the only person that can contribute ideas, be the arbiter of ideas. Allow anyone and everyone to add ideas and you just be judge of the ideas, letting in those that work and keeping out those that do not.

Perfectionism

Perfect to one can be flawed to another. It is a futile goal to shoot for perfect. Your film will only get as good as it can given your circumstances. Acclimate yourself to the fact that your film will not be like it was in your head and it will be a much happier filmmaking experience. Push to get close to that original vision, but accept your limitations with style, dignity and grace.

Blaming, Not Taking Responsibility

The buck stops with leaders, and the director is a leader. There should be nothing he or she is not responsible for. If things go wrong they are at fault, and to pretend otherwise is to not be a true leader. Blaming others shows cowardice and gives indications of worse things to come when the pressure gets higher. If a director cannot take the blame for the food not tasting good at lunch, how secure will the crew and cast feel that you will indeed be helping them in lieu of pay after the film is completed as promised.

Poor Planning

Planning is boring. Planning is what happens while life is happening, but failing to plan is planning to fail. Nobody wants to scramble the day of or not know what to do because the director does not know what they want to do that day. If for no other reason then courtesy, a director should do all the work possible ahead of time so the cast and crew can better do their jobs.

Expecting Mind Reading

My dad used to always expect me to know what he needed next, he called it anticipating. Unfortunately you will not be able to use the threat of bodily harm to will people into being able to read your mind like he was. Understand that people have their own things going on and cannot always be assessing what you need next. Communicate clearly and people will help, fall back on ESP and you will be disappointed.

Directors can be jerks some of the time and get away with it. But ultimately unless their movies make lots of money for lots of people, they will not be able to get away with it for long. If you want to be a movie director so you can belittle people I cannot stop you, but I can warn you that karma exists and many states in the USA allow people to carry concealed firearms.

Have you heard any stories of bad behavior by directors?

Did it adversely affect their ability to make films afterwards?