Mistakes allow you to learn, gain experience and move forward faster. Being more comfortable with one’s mistakes is worthy of a courageous leader.
This article invites you to be more comfortable with your mistakes, offers tips on how to better manage your employees’ mistakes and to make courageous decisions if necessary.
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Being more comfortable with mistakes
Some people believe that you shouldn’t make mistakes, or that you should cover up your mistakes. Often these people fear the consequences (losing a job, losing a status). Yes, avoiding mistakes could help you keep up appearances.
Whether you are a manager or a leader of an organization, if you want to evolve and progress, learn to manage your mistakes positively.
Not acknowledging and accepting your mistakes is a hindrance to your development.
On the one hand, some people refuse to admit mistakes, others admit their mistakes right away. Know that beyond admitting mistakes, it is the people who learn from their mistakes who will continue to progress!
I think that people who never make mistakes should not take any risks. Isn’t it? If you don’t take risks because you’re not comfortable making mistakes, I imagine you don’t get the satisfaction of achieving your ambitions either? By stepping out of your comfort zone, yes, you risk making mistakes. On the contrary, by not leaving your comfort zone, you will stagnate in the same place.
If you’re craving something different, keep reading and learn how to be more comfortable with mistakes.
First, here are the benefits of mistakes.
The Benefits of Making Mistakes
- Connect more sincerely and deeply with other people: your vulnerability and your human side are what is true!
- Developing a better knowledge of oneself: one’s qualities, one’s limits.
- To be more aligned with one’s desires in order to be more satisfied, happy and proud.
- Increase your self-confidence: The more you learn from your mistakes, the more you will know that you are capable of facing challenges and will be more optimistic in the face of them.
How can you be more comfortable with mistakes?
First, some people are more comfortable with risk, others more cautious. I agree that some mistakes have more impact than others. A grammatical error can have an impact, a recruitment error or a mistake that causes sales to be lost also has an impact.
Tony Robbins says, ” The lowest standard in life is trying to be perfect.” In other words: The lowest ambition in life is to try to be perfect.
What for? Because the more you try to be perfect, the less risk you take. The less risk you take, the less you learn. The less you learn, the less progress you make.
Here’s how to deal with mistakes at work
1. Admit your mistake
It can be a question of admitting a mistake, either when you are told about it, or proactively by mentioning your mistake to the person who will see the impacts.
I also ask you to apologize. You don’t have to justify yourself on the never-ending mistake. However, most people will appreciate it if you say, “I’m sorry for this mistake, I can see that there are impacts.”
Making mistakes is usually not the problem itself. What I see as a problem is rather the lack of responsibility for the error.
If you’re not sure how serious your mistake is, ask questions!
If you keep justifying yourself, thinking that it’s not your fault and that others need to change, I invite you to take a step back and ask yourself: what is my share of responsibility in the situation?
Accepting and learning from your mistakes is courageous.
If you want to develop your courage and vulnerability, it could make you a more unifying leader.
2. Propose a solution
You may not be entirely responsible for the situation, but remember that you have full control over your decisions, actions, reactions, and words. You may lack tools, but you are in control. (You also have the choice to develop yourself!)
3. Act consistently
Depending on the severity of your mistake, i.e. the impact of it, you may have lost the trust of some people on certain subjects.
A person who was comfortable was first uncomfortable at the time of the mistake, then dared to act on what he or she had learned. If you’ve said you’ll handle your emotions better, do it. If you said you were going to set up a new system to organize yourself, do so.
When a certain consistency between your actions and your words is noticed, you will stand out and gain more confidence. You will be someone who can be counted on, because you will be a person who learns from your mistakes.
A person who takes the right responsibility for his mistake, who says it and who proposes or looks for solutions so that this mistake does not happen again, is a person who manages his mistakes very well.
Here’s how to deal with your employees’ mistakes
Some managers are so demanding that employees don’t dare to make mistakes. These managers are generally very demanding of themselves. That said, to allow for more mistakes from their employees, they can:
1. Be more comfortable with their own mistakes.
Stop trying to be perfect, take action, take responsibility, learn and adjust your actions in the future.
2. Invite others to follow the process described above.
That is to say, do not listen to justifications that are too much where blame is very present. Instead, try to make the person see what their responsibility is for what happened. Also shed light on the impacts of the error. Ask the person what they are going to put in place to minimize the risk of error in the future.
It can be difficult for some to communicate their emotions, if so, follow the tips in this article on how to communicate their emotions.
3. Be honest with themselves
As a manager, did you provide the right coaching based on the person’s level and seniority in the position? If not, also tell the person how you could help them in the future.
And the opposite problem… someone who makes too many mistakes!
If someone on your team doesn’t seem to learn from their mistakes or seem to take responsibility (they don’t communicate about it or offer a solution) and you’ve really tried to make them see the impacts, you may need to make a brave decision.
Conclusion
In closing, the invitation here to be more comfortable with your mistakes is to learn to better accept your mistakes, by admitting them, by taking the right responsibility and by putting solutions in place. Sometimes it’s just a matter of asking for help from your peers and solutions emerge.
You will be able to help your employees to better accept their mistakes and, if necessary, to make courageous decisions!
The online self-study “Develop your managerial courage and your ability to delegate” can be a great help! See the details by clicking here.