“The Leadership Perspective” is a series of articles designed to assist millennials and emerging leaders with navigating difficult situations. Each week, successful business leaders provide targeted, actionable advice to enhance your perspective and improve your leadership skills.
Today’s article features Meg Fasy, Principle at FazeFWD Sponsorship Marketing.
In one form or another, I have consistently been told that mistakes provide some of life’s best learning opportunities. You may be familiar with similar phrases espousing the same concept. Some of the most influential people in history have spoken on this very mindset:
All men make mistakes, but only wise men learn from their mistakes.
Experience is simply the name we give our mistakes.
A person who never made a mistake never tried anything new.
As familiar as we are with these common platitudes, it still does not make the actual experience of failure any more comfortable. Whether the error impacts only you or affects others as well, making a mistake might actually be the easy part. The hard work begins with recognizing, responding, reflecting, and recovering.
Knowing what to do and how to properly respond once you have recognized your mistake(s) is paramount to the process of transitioning a mistake from defeat to opportunity or victory. In other words, by having an effective process in place, well-known clichés can become useful wisdom. As Meg says, “Own it. Fix it. Learn from it.” Together, these three elements frame a three-step process you can use to act quickly and effectively when you make a mistake.
Own It.
Take responsibility for your mistake by acknowledging it directly. By admitting that you were wrong and offering a brief explanation, you are addressing the issue and creating an environment that most effectively maintains your credibility. Owning the mistake and taking responsibility for it also means acknowledging and comprehending its widespread impact. You must be able to truly listen to others without interruption and, if necessary, offer a genuine apology. As difficult as it may be, this step is essential to the process.
Fix It.
In these situations, taking action is just as important as taking responsibility. Your ability to clearly communicate your plans to fix the mistake now and in the future is fundamental. Even more, identifying the elements of the mistake that can be fixed and those that cannot provide a framework and guidelines for proceeding. It is also important to explain how you will work to avoid similar errors in the future. Or, as Meg says, “you must learn why it was incorrect and understand what you need to do so that you don’t make the same mistake twice.”
Learn From It.
Without self-reflection, you cannot learn, and you therefore cannot evolve. As Meg puts it, “mistakes often allow us to see a situation from a viewpoint we may not have previously considered. In order to learn from my mistakes, I always ask myself three questions. First, why did I make the decision that I made? Second, why was that decision a mistake? Finally, what would have been a better decision?”
The conversation(s) you have with yourself can be integral to your response and recovery. However, the work cannot stop there. This work begins by initiating dialogue with others. Share the lessons you have learned from the experience with those who were impacted and what you plan to do differently moving forward. Ask those impacted, and do not hesitate to seek objective outside sources, for their perspective(s) and advice for your recovery. These efforts display your commitment to overall improvement and growth.
Once you learn from your mistake, it is important to move forward. However, it is important to understand that you will revisit them in one form or another. I know that it can be difficult to rebuild your confidence after making an error but recovering from it is often the most important indicator of personal and professional perseverance. In conclusion, essential to your process of becoming a leader is making mistakes, learning from them, not letting them deter experimentation, and responding to these issues with a plan that puts you ahead.
