A quality that I find hugely important but increasingly rare in people is the willingness to admit mistakes. Growing up I wasn’t really part of a culture in which mistakes are openly discussed and used as an opportunity to learn. For a long time, my own approach was therefore one of just moving on or trying to fix things without admitting to any mistakes (often compounding the initial mistake in the process).
But as I started to manage people I came to realize that if you want them to try things and take risks you can’t have a culture that hides mistakes. Every mistake is an opportunity to learn and you don’t want to throw those away. So if you want that kind of culture you have to start with yourself and admit your mistakes. In a business setting a simple “I got this wrong” or a more emphatic “I screwed this up” is so direct and helpful that often it doesn’t even require an apology (unless someone got harmed).
I certainly wish we had more of that in our public/political world as well which seems full of attacking others for their (alleged) mistakes without ever mentioning one’s own. I occasionally struggle getting this right at home (where more emotions tend to be involved) and writing this post will hopefully serve as a good reminder to myself.
