Tuesday, April 5, 2011

Mistakes

This post will be fairly quick, because I am working on saying what I want to say without writing a novel about it, however I wanted to talk about an issue in some leaders, including myself, that I have become aware of recently.

Mistakes happen. Things don't always go as planned. As leaders, we have to make sure that we don't let each and every mistake bother us because we will get worn down trying to deal with all of them. Next time a mistake happens in your organization, take a step back and separate yourself from the situation and calmly analyze if the mistake is going to have a big impact on your organization or not.

So many times things go wrong and the, "this is ridiculous; how could you; he's terrible at his job; it was such an easy task" statements start flying. Don't punish the honest mistake. You'll turn that person off to authority and guidance and never be able to get a response from them in the future. Instead, ask them about the problem, see why the mistake occurred, and go about resolving the situation in a calm matter.

Odds are good that things aren't as bad as you're trying to make them. 

Don't get caught up in perfection. It isn't real and it isn't worth it.