Conversations that Matter: Leadership and Making Mistakes
When do you talk about the importance of making mistakes? When can you convey, at home or at work, the growth opportunities that happen because you go out on a limb and make mistakes? I say; whenever the opportunity presents itself.
In the 2-minute video above, I talk about seizing the opportunity and conveying to ourselves and to those we teach, inspire, train, guide or lead that when trying newer skills:
(1) Mistakes are normal.
(2) Mistakes often show that you had the courage to try.
(3) Mistakes allow you to learn and grow.
(4) Aim for doing your best NOT being perfect.
(5) Our flaws are what make us human, lovable and interesting.
If you think about it, if we aren’t making mistakes, it may be because we aren’t trying something new or we aren’t truly engaging in the learning process. Without mistakes, how would we know that we do our best when we have more time to study (and worse when we leave it until the last minute)? Without mistakes, how would we learn when we get our best work done, where and when we are the most productive (and when we are not), who are the right people to surround ourselves with and who drag us down? We must love ourselves as the learners we are and realize that without learning, there would be no growth. As leaders, growth is what makes us better, stronger and more skilled.
In other words; don’t fear mistakes, embrace them. They are the ticket to your next learning opportunity.