Mistakes are a part of life, whoever said they got it right their first time is bluffing big time. Maybe they got it right on their first attempt but it is only because they have failed inside their head quite many times before performing the act to understand what could go wrong. This then results in their attempt, it is a perfect first attempt to say but the result of several planned attempts. Well, we cannot failure protect our actions and so we fail but what we need to take from this is the lesson. The very first step is ‘acknowledging’ that you were wrong and then ‘accepting’ your mistakes and then comes owning your mistakes.
We at times run away from accepting them and then go covering up our mistakes. However, it is said that owning them instead of running from them can help you grow and succeed in life. We have witnessed how our parents have got the immense need to be correct all the time to prove their authority over the house and to be a better example for their kids. This manifests an always need to be correct attitude and this then becomes a part of who you are.
We all will agree that this also is a common sight at our workplaces, our immediate bosses will mostly not accept or acknowledge their mistakes, let alone work on correcting them. This results in a way of following the incorrect practices.
Owning your mistakes and how to turn your mistakes into learnings:
- It builds on your ability to take responsibility: Being responsible is a valued quality in any business. When you make a mistake you should also be willing to own it and take full responsibility for it.
- It helps you turn negativity into positivity: When your leader or you are a leader you make mistake and own it, you should not just stop at them. The next steps will be to turn that into a learning opportunity for all and then correct the ways. Maybe the failure was unavoidable this time but if this is taken as learning it can turn into a reason you will not fail the next time.
- Makes you an example: Well, you make a mistake and never accept or rectify it, you become a lesson for others in regards to what not to do. We always have said to learn from others’ mistakes. Don’t be a lesson for your mistake but be an example of the fact how you owned the mistakes and changed the ways.
- Earning or losing respect: It is presumed that leaders are scared or hesitant to own their mistakes because they feel that they will lose the respect that they have earned. They assume that their mistakes will make them look like a failure. However, this is not true. Owning your mistake can make you the bigger person in the room and you will always leave the room earning more respect.
- Trust: Owning your mistakes and not lying further or making more to cover them is one of the most important aspects when re-establishing trust.
- Makes you look courageous: When you own your mistakes you do not seem weak or incapable to anyone, humans being are not mistake-proof. One will make mistakes and owning and accepting them is an act of courage.
- Look at the bigger picture: Let us assume that you made a mistake of disclosing your pricing strategy to one of your clients, now you have to offer the deal at a loss but if you accept and own how the mistake was raised and how it manifested then you can avoid this on all your future clients and this is a bigger profit than the small loss you faced when dealing with this client.
- Build on relationship: When you own your mistakes this only goes to prove that you are as human as the others in the workplace and this makes you relatable if not more. Also, when you own it and admit it you do not have to deal with it any longer. Many minds will come together to analyze the situation which is your win-win.
An organization can go a long way when they do not only preach honesty and integrity but also practice it. No one looks at the company for the brand that it is daily, the judge or form a picture of the company based on their immediate bosses. They will describe the company and its work environment based on how their immediate bosses have created it for them. Let us say the CEO, MD, CFO of a company are people with great values and morals but your immediate boss does not reflect any of these qualities and you feel that the work environment is toxic. So when you describe the company to a third person you express how toxic it feels to you and hence this becomes the immediate image of the environment that the CEO, MD, CFO has created.
When you become a leader you no longer just represent how good or bad a leader you are, but also to a certain limit the representation of the company you work for. Make sure to reflect on the value and be a good face of the company that looks at you as so. We can never be perfect because we are human but we can always thrive to be better than who we were yesterday and owning our mistakes and working on them goes a long way.
