communicating mistakes to add value

[David Sandusky]

Maturing as a leader, heck, as a person is a result of learning from our mistakes. Countless times I would interview an executive with dialog around past mistakes they made that can be used to add value moving forward. Often times the honesty of poor decisions benefited the candidate more than hiding the facts. It would come out in due diligence anyway.

Inc. magazine had a recent article about organizations finding ways to reward people for logging or posting mistakes on a company blog. Read more..."Mistakes Were Made"
As mentioned in the article, such internal blogs are rare still. The challenges come in the obvious point that we as humans may shy away from such activity or the grey area in rewarding vs. punishing.

I see it like this: we all make mistakes, let's get real. The value of training increases greatly within any organization when mistakes are documented with the lesson learned story to follow. Others may be making the same mistake and don't even realize it yet...this open culture could save valuable relationships with clients and vendors not to mention valuable time.

Can the same benefit be obtained in a forum / community like this?

[eric.rodwell]

Yes, I think the same benefit of learning from other people's mistakes can be obtained in this online community and forum.

My first mistake after assuming a new leadership role was with one of my team members. In my first one on one meeting with this particular team member, I wanted to let him know how much I appreciated him and the job he was doing. However, my tone and words did not reflect that appreciation. I started off by saying "First, I want to tell you how great of a job you have done" and before I could say another word, I immediately saw the look of panic on his face thinking that the second thing I was going to say was, "but I have to let you go".

I quickly realized that the things I say as a leader take on a new meaning and I have to pay particular attention to how I say things. This also means that I have a great opportunity to drive my mission and vision with what I say and how I say it.

What mistakes have you encountered in your leadership position?

[David Sandusky]

Thanks for sharing! We all know actions speak louder than words but make the mistake in our behavior - especially during tense situations. I have.

I have made and will make mistakes. Most notable lesson I learned was building a new team to quickly. We had a lot of business and I was excited about getting my first team in place. It is funny looking back because I was great at making sound hiring decision with my clients, but for my own team, I was not as patient and diligent. Great and talented people, but the first few hires were not a fit. Later, we were able to prove we learned.

[eric.rodwell]

I recently returned from a conference with our CEO and over dinner he told me that I needed to do a better job managing up. He said that he felt I managed up and down the same way. I can think of two situations where I failed to manage the CEO properly.

First, I recently had a meeting where the agenda was over 1 page and included way too much detail for his liking. He even commented that the agenda was too long and he couldn't quickly see the high priority items.

Second, I have noticed that when proposing a solution to a problem I tend to offer 2-3 solutions and then have the CEO decide on the solution without offering what I think the solution should be and why. I believe that when a solution is provided, it is easier for the CEO to say, yes go with it, or no and this is why, then trying to walk through each soluion on his own.

What are some other ideas for effectively managing up?

[Mary White]

Growing up, I was taught that it is a sign of strength to recognize and admit your weaknesses. I have never had a problem admitting when I am wrong, and I try very hard to cultivate an environment with my employees and trainees (I manage a training facility) in which they can comfortably admit errors and focus on fixing problems rather than running from being blamed for them.

[David Sandusky]

Mary White, your trainees are fortunate to be able to achieve success by not being afraid to make mistakes during the process of improving themselves, process, whatever. Thanks for sharing!

[mtgman]

Are you not in jeopardy of loosing credibility as a manager when communication mistakes you make? What is the balance?

[David Sandusky]

Are you not in jeopardy of loosing credibility as a manager when communication mistakes you make? What is the balance?

I think you loose credibility when not teaching others about mistakes you have made yourself. A manager becomes a leader when making mistakes or failing because of pushing to the edge. A person can not understand their limits if not pushed.

Not being aware of your environment and the lack of your own personal board of advisors to point out mistakes to learn from is the larger failure - in which you can't recover.