MIAMI, FL / ACCESSWIRE / August 18, 2021 / Admitting past mistakes can be daunting, especially if you are in a leadership position. It is, however, important for leaders to be able to admit and move forward from past mistakes for several reasons.
"To gain respect from coworkers and fine-tune your leadership approach, you must be able to accept -and even share-your past mistakes as learning opportunities so we keep moving forward," explains Jozef Opdeweeh, a long-time C-suite executive and author of Fair Value: Reflections on Good Business.
Jozef Opdeweegh provides us with several key insights on how exactly leaders can best learn from their past mistakes in a business setting.
1. Accountability through sharing
The first steps in moving forward from your mistakes as a leader are to share and take accountability for them. Mature leaders don't hide their failures, rather they use them as a way for everyone to learn, discussing what went wrong and how we might do better next time. The key is doing so in a way that helps colleagues feel comfortable about sharing and fixing their own mistakes. The goal is to allow us all to reflect on why the mistake happened in the first place, and find solutions that remedy the problem for the future.
"Sharing your mistakes can be intimidating when you're in charge of a team, but it's very important," says Jozef Opdeweegh. "Of course, you must also take accountability for them-sharing does not mean passing the buck! Taking accountability in this open way not only creates an opportunity to show you can admit your faults, but it also can help bring teams together, showing that leaders are real and fallible people too. . Fortunately, I haven't made too many serious mistakes as a leader, but the ones I have, I've been able to admit, and the whole team was able to move forward and grow together as a result."
2. Don't Repeat
Arguably the best way to gauge whether You've learned from your mistakes is your ability to not repeat them. . This of course is easier said than done. Mistakes seldom spring from laziness or incompetence, indeed most are made because people chose a path they believed was right. hen you've made a mistake, it is important to try to learn and hold yourself to higher standards, not repeating those same mistakes again. If you make the same error multiple times it becomes a bad decision within your control rather than an honest mistake.
Jozef Opdeweegh explains, "Repeating mistakes as a leader is a pattern you do not want to fall into and it's something I've only done only a very few times. If we are honest, it's also embarrassing to make the same mistake twice, especially when people look up to you and your judgment. I made a promise to myself early on in my career that I would try always to learn from rather than repeat a mistake. As with almost all promises we occasionally fail, but that awareness and determination to do better is what makes for progress and turns short-term failures into longer-term success.."
3. Coaching Others
As a leader, learning from your past mistakes can also make for a good coaching opportunity, If you make a mistake while leading a team, it can be a good idea to turn it into a learning opportunity not only for yourself but for your teammates as well. This level of openness also fosters deeper connection, better communication, and greater trust between you and the people you lead.
"It can be hard to know how to react when you make a mistake as a leader, but nowadays my first reaction is to use it as an opportunity to coach others. It takes courage if the mistake was your own, but it‘s also a great opportunity to bring everyone on the team together and talk about what went wrong and why. Because the mistake was not theirs it fosters confidence in problem-solving and helps people to think through similar situations they might face. Coaching is about ‘showing' rather than ‘telling' and committing to actions that we agree together rather than ones that are imposed " Jozef says.
Anyone can make a mistake, but it takes a real leader to accept, learn, and grow from their past errors. With over two decades of business experience, Jozef Opdeweegh has valuable insight when it comes to learning from workplace mistakes. By making commitments to share and take accountability, not repeat mistakes, and to coach others, leaders can turn their mistakes into pivotal lessons that help everyone in the workplace to become better at what they do.
For more on how our core values can shape up the way we lead, check out Jozef Opdeweegh's new book, Fair Value: Reflection on Good Business, published by Koehler Books. Get your copy at your favorite bookstore or retailer today!
Fair Value: Reflections on Good Business, By Jozef Opdeweegh
Contact: Andrew Mitchell, media@cambridgeglobal.com
SOURCE: Cambridge Global
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