Five Ways to Get Good at Mistake Making
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The fear of making mistakes doesn’t prevent mistakes it destroys progress and growth. John Wooden said, “I’m positive that a doer makes mistakes.”
Challenge:
Too many mistakes and you lose credibility. Too few mistakes and you’re dead in the water, you can’t lead.
5 ways to get good at mistake making
- Don’t make the mistake of letting your mistakes defeat you. Maintain momentum and enthusiasm even when you fail. Churchill wisely said, “Courage is going from failure to failure without losing enthusiasm.”
- Don’t pretend you know when you don’t. Rather than pretending, proclaim your ignorance. Say things like, “I’ve never led a marketing team before but I’m up for the challenge.” Making mistakes is easier if others know you don’t know.
- Celebrate your successes and your mistakes. Celebrating mistakes freaks people out and that’s always fun. In addition, stories of your mistakes can be humors, endearing, and most importantly, educational. Finally, explaining a good screw-up before sharing a success prevents you from looking arrogant.
- It’s a mistake to run from mistakes. After owning a mistake, begin the next sentence, “Next time …” Eli Siegel observed, “If a mistake is not a stepping stone, it is a mistake.”
- Please don’t be a whining, cry baby. You look weak when you make excuses. It’s better to, “Admit your errors before someone else exaggerates them,” Andrew V. Mason.
Everyone wonders, “What if I make a mistake?” The better question is what if you don’t?
What suggestions do you have for people who are paralyzed by the fear of making mistakes?
6. Don’t make the same mistake twice
Good one!
Actually the second time you make a mistake, it’s called a ‘choice’. LoL!
now thats a kick in the pants! 🙂
Unless you have found a way to manipulate the time-space continuum, it probably isn’t the same mistake. What Rachel said..;)
Dang you’re wicked smart
The one to make 5K mistakes, wins. That’s how Dyson created his first vacuum cleaner: 5,127 prototypes to come up with the one that worked.
A mistake is one step closer to success. Someone said the only time you don’t fail is the last time… the time when you succeed.
If you are a leader who values learning and appreciates and understands growth – then you might consider looking at your mistakes as growth opportunities – ask yourself, “What can I learn from this, or where is the gift in this screw-up”?
Similarly, we know from people like Dan Goleman and Richard Boyatzis (Social Intelligence and the Biology of Leadership) that the leader who connects at the emotional, empathetic level is a strong leader…. what better way to reach others at a neurobiological level that to elicit their empathy… “look (s)he’s human, too (we all make mistakes)” – demonstrating our human-ness, our vulnerability actually binds people to us…
strong stuff….
Thanks for extending the conversation.
Ask people if they believe in growth and most will say yes. However, few people realize that growth suggests we aren’t there yet. Leaders who believe in growth must accept “not yet.”
We learn by trial and error from childhood, then somewhere along the way, people start to feel better about themselves by drawing attention to others “mistakes” and deflect away from their own inadequacies, I have found on occasion. So for me, I find this works best …..
1. Everyone makes mistakes relative to themselves. So forget about how others perceive you …. and if all they can see are your mistakes, they have nothing better to be doing !!
2. Make your own plan, execute your own actions and enjoy the process.
3. Analyze what works, what doesn’t and tweak as you go along.
4. Share your mistakes / failures at an appropriate time in a forum that is conducive to listening and learning from you. Be a Leader.
5. Mistakes are relative …. don’t get hung on them, be proud you keep trying ……. 🙂
Very encouraging comment.
You bring up an important problem… pointing out the failure of others so we can feel good about ourselves.
Pointing out the failure of others for personal gain IS a failure. 🙂 People who do it are dangerous to morale and collaboration – two things necessary for great success.
Is it a mistake or is it continuous improvement? Just depends on which lens you choose. Would also posit that 100% infallibility is boring (except with take offs and landings).
You are absolutely right about celebrating failure, catches people way off guard, but if you want to get better, own it, shine a light on it and appreciate it.
My first times snowboarding felt like I fell down way more than stood up, but after 24 years of it, am still +1 on standing up. For many ventures, I believe, you aren’t having fun unless you are falling down, or at least willing to fall down.
I’m entering the world of continuous improvement. Thanks Doc.
Love the quote… “You aren’t having fun unless you are … willing to fall down.”
Mistake Provides the opportunity to learn how to do it right next time. Go all out and make a new mistake to LEARN.
Great post !!
YOu remind me that the fear of making mistakes prevents us from going all out… nice
Great post Dan. I love “Celebrating your Mistakes.” That takes great humility. Really a geat challenge for me today, thanks!
You nailed the leadership quality necessary to get the most from mistakes… humility…
It seems like one feeds the other.. humility lets us celebrate mistakes and mistakes humble us too
In our ministry, I use this analogy of God training us as kids on a bike. And when we fail (sin) or make mistakes, etc. It’s like falling off the bike. But God has covered our sins in Christ so that their would be no self-condemnation and guilt of the failure. People fear not being pleasing to God and never try. So I tell them God is their Father encouraging you to get back up on the bike and keep going unto you get it right. Once you get back on that bike the Father will ride with you and you will have a lot more fun. Accidents (and failures) do happen. Because of Christ, we can now get back up on that bike and keep riding, learning, and getting better.
I love sharing stories of mistakes that I have made when teaching or lecturing, it shows that we are human, others can relate to us better and it always reminds me of what I don’t want to repeat. Great post Dan.
Mistakes? Made a monumental one just this week. Took a few hours to gather myself and get back at it and am still raking over the rubble to make sure it never happens again. So, good timing on this post!
Here is a question that was posed to me when I was young lass: How many times does one have to fail to succeed?
Thanks for this!! I love Churchill’s quote about not losing enthusiasm despite failing time after time.
Question: when is it really time to realize that perhaps, after many failures, one should start looking at another path?
Indeed, it’s like giving up, but also a refreshing way of starting something new?
Reblogged this on For your mind & future only and commented:
Everyone wonders, “What if I make a mistake?” The better question is what if you don’t?
Tiimely post. I am currently working on a new company I have just started. I have had a couple of failures before. Start-up phase is hard…I really hope this does not fail. Picking yourself up again is easy to talk about but hard to do.