Everyone can make a mistake and can recover from it, but John Eades* says it is the unconscious mistakes made day-in, day-out that can cause real harm.
No one likes to make mistakes, but it’s a part of being human.
When it comes to leadership, one significant mistake can cause you to fail.
Take Jordan, a section head, as an example. In one of his big hiring decisions, he was down to two external candidates.
Everyone on the panel preferred Ron over Ellen because of his relevant experience.
However, in the interview process, Jordan saw significant character issues that he thought would cause problems down the road.
Instead of trusting his judgment, he hired Ron anyway.
Sure enough, within two years, Ron cost the company millions of dollars in a lawsuit because of a flawed character decision.
If that wasn’t enough, Jordan lost his job because of Ron’s actions.
Since then, Jordan has bounced back and gone on to be the chief executive of a high-growth company, but he refuses to make the same mistake again.
He spends a significant amount of time refining the organisation’s hiring system and evaluating core values alignment before signing anyone on the dotted line.
In studying so many great leaders and coaching leaders like Jordan, I have learned an essential lesson.
All leaders make mistakes; the best leaders learn from them and refuse to make them again.
A mistake is defined as an action or judgment that is misguided or wrong.
As previously noted, leaders can fail because of significant errors, but more often than not, it’s repeating the same small mistakes over and over again that cause an unengaged team.
With this in mind, here are some less obvious mistakes I see that you will want to avoid to be a more effective leader.
Focusing on the gap, not the gain
There is a good chance you wouldn’t be in a leadership position if you didn’t have a vision for a better place tomorrow than where you are today.
Because of this, it’s tempting to focus on the gap between where you are concerning that vision, versus how far you have come.
In a recent episode of the Follow My Lead Podcast, Catholic outreach leader, Pete Burak described it so well:
“Many millennial leaders make the mistake of not trusting the process and measuring the gain and not the gap.”
Not only is Burak right, but every leader, regardless of age, can make this mistake.
Losing sight of a deeper purpose
It will always be easier as a manager to focus on the outcome of hitting metrics.
For some people, ‘purpose’ feels like a righteous or elitist word.
However, being able to persevere through tough times, or challenge your team to new heights, often requires a more profound purpose or cause.
Writer, Myles Munroe said: “You must believe, deep inside of you that you were born to do more than survive, make a living, and die.
“You were created with a gift inside of you; your job is to find that gift and serve it to the world.”
The best leaders not only know this, but they lean into it.
They spend time, energy, and effort to determine their deeper purpose and connect their team to a cause.
Taking credit for success and shifting blame for failure
Taking credit and shifting blame is a mistake many leaders in big organisations have made to jockey for hierarchical positions.
However, it’s not an error you want to repeat. Great leaders take more responsibility for mistakes and less responsibility for success.
By leading this way, team members will recognise what you are doing and give more effort in the future to elevate the job you are doing.
Everyone will make mistakes when they are doing challenging work, so embrace leadership’s responsibility and stop blaming your team.
I don’t know anyone who likes making mistakes, but if you aren’t going to repeat them it requires significant mental energy and effort.
If you recognise you are making some of these mistakes in the way you lead, don’t beat yourself up.
A mentor reminded me recently: “A mistake should be your teacher, not your attacker. A mistake is a lesson, not a loss.
“It is a temporary, necessary detour, not a dead end.”
Brush off your mistakes, learn from them, and try not to make them again.
*John Eades is the Chief Executive of LearnLoft a leadership development company. He is also the host of the Follow My Lead podcast. He can be contacted at johneades.com.
This article first appeared the LearnLoft blog.
