I feel it like a pit in my stomach and my heart shrinks. Maybe you feel it like a warm flush that passes over you or perhaps tunnel vision takes over for just a moment. This feeling is the result of a mistake, a misstep, a screwup and it's yours. These are some of the ways we all feel when we’ve made a mistake.  

No leader is perfect, and everyone is human. We all make mistakes. Leadership is full of uncertainty, vulnerability, and ambiguity leaving you with the risk of missteps each day. Not everyone cleans up their mistakes and all effective leaders do their best to clean up imperfectly. Avoiding it will erode your leadership effectiveness, your credibility, and how much others trust and respect you.

HERE ARE SOME COMMON LEADERSHIP MISTAKES:

·       Making a decision that led to a negative outcome

·       Delegating something you that was your scope of responsibility

·       Failing to delegate and either your team missing out on development opportunities

·       Giving someone a task without clear communication or development to succeed

·       Communicating poorly – sharing too much, too little, confusing others, and more

·       Overstepping and micromanaging a team member

·       Forgetting to make time to develop your team members

·       Avoiding someone feedback that was important for their growth because you were too busy or too uncomfortable

·       Failing to keep someone informed or follow-through on a commitment

·       Responding inappropriately when someone gave you difficult news or challenged your opinion or work

·       Missed considering someone’s feelings or losing your composure

SO HOW DOES A LEADER RECOVER?

Breathe. Take one or more breaths before responding to allow the emotion to wash through you and maintain your composure. Then, admit your mistake in the simplest terms. “I made a wrong decision”, “I shouldn’t have assumed…”, “I let you down” and then apologize.  A clear apology starts with “I’m sorry” or “I apologize”. Never include the word if. Avoid, “I apologize if…” and instead say, “I apologize for…”.  Look for learning and make amends if required. Finally, commit to future behaviours that you’ll take on as a result of your learning from this mistake and communicate your commitments to those who need to hear it.

It’s humbling to recognize and admit you’ve made a mistake. You have a choice; you can brush it off and pretend it hasn’t happened or face the discomfort and walk-through cleaning up. Once you do, those difficult feelings will begin to fade away.