The purpose of reflecting on past performance is improvement.
During a Q&A with leaders from a global organization, someone asked, “What is your contribution to the leadership community?”
I wish I could erase the answer I gave. It wasn’t wrong, but it didn’t reflect my best self.
I’m learning to navigate screw ups with curiosity.
Learning from mistakes is hard. Ego, defensiveness, blame, avoidance, and fear prolong stupidity.
Learning from success is nearly impossible.
Workaholics succeed. Manipulators get ahead. Cutting corners pays for a while.
Failure asks questions. Success makes stupid look smart.
The Unexpected Blunder of Letting Success Make You Stupid
“Fail fast, fail often” is a dangerous half-truth.
Failing fast hurts when you keep stepping in the same trap.
Failing isn’t smart when you don’t learn.
Responsible failure produces insight.
Negligent failure repeats mistakes and blames circumstances.
This post is a Field Guide to Responsible Failure.
A one-string banjo doesn’t sound happy. Overconfidence in one strength brings leaders down.
Visionaries fail when they can’t get stuff done. Relationship builders fail when they don’t have tough conversations. Doers without empathy build disengaged teams.
Leaders fail by leaning too hard on one strength.
We worship success because we want it. But we gain possibilities in the failure.
Blunders make you beautiful.
I asked John Maxwell what he has learned from success. He chuckled and said, “Not as much as I’ve learned from failure.”
Remember blunders. Falling short is the edge of transformation.
One goal of managing is to supervise less. Managers work too hard because they supervise too much. Giving autonomy to supervisors scares the crap out of incompetent managers.
Bureaucrats become block autonomy with regulations. Control requires management and supervision. The bigger the employee handbook the more you need to supervise.
Give competent people autonomy. Control blocks autonomy.
