Shared Slipups

A leader, especially an executive, admitting they got something wrong, out loud, in front of the team, is rarer than it should be. When a mistake happens, everyone in the room already knows that something went wrong, but naming it directly and taking ownership of it is apparently the harder move.

What happens when someone in a leadership position actually names one of their own mistakes out loud, explains what they were thinking and explains where their thinking broke down? Not immediately, it takes time for the culture to propagate across an organization, but eventually.

The version of this that doesn't work is when a leader is not respected by the team (for whatever reason) and it becomes a confessional thing, where a leader treats their team like a group therapy session and works through every wobble in real time.

The version that works is faster but harder to force yourself to do: Here's what I got wrong, here's what it cost, here's what I've learned. It doesn't need to be performed or packaged into a presentation; it's just enough to say it, and the team will work it out themselves.