Be Wrong & Own It

Happy Marathon Monday!  I hope everyone in Boston has a safe, fun & successful day today!

This week’s quote comes from the legendary Seth Godin.  Seth is probably my favorite writer on business and marketing.  If you are looking for a good place to start to learn about Seth, either go to his blog: http://sethgodin.typepad.com/ where he has posted every day for years, or read one of his books.  I recommend starting with Purple Cow.  You will probably see me quoting Seth a lot in this space.

Today’s quote is about having the “willingness” to be wrong, and even more importantly the “eagerness,” to admit it.  Let’s break this down into a couple of parts.

First, being wrong does take a willingness on the part of the leader.  Every leader, is going to be wrong once in a while.  More likely, every leader is going to be wrong a lot!  It is not easy to lead people, a business, or a team.  Doing so at any level involves making a lot of decisions, many of which will be wrong.  I’ll go one step further, if a leader isn’t making mistakes they are making the biggest mistake of all…. playing it too safe!

The problem is, many leaders aren’t secure enough to admit when they make mistakes.  They try to hide them, or rationalize them, or place blame on outside forces.  Many leaders fear that they will lose credibility when their people see them be wrong.  What they should realize is credibility is lost most when they don’t own being wrong.  Hiding, or passing blame, or ignoring is where credibility goes out the window.

I love the way Seth finishes the thought by using the word “eagerness.”  It is one thing to be confident enough to admit your mistakes, it is a totally different thing to be “eager” to do so.  If you get to that point, I think you are playing the game at a different level.

Try it with your team and you will see how powerful a concept this is.  Apologize to the wait staff for not having had enough staff scheduled on yesterday’s brunch.  Let the runner know the shift was harder then it needed to be because you didn’t give him the supplies he needed to do the job well.  Own your mistakes and take responsibility for the bad along with the good, and watch respect from your people multiply.

Then….. there is the customer.  I am sure you all saw the fiasco at United Airlines last week.  How this could have happened is completely mind boggling.  But, what was even worse was the response of CEO Oscar Munoz.  It took him 3 statements and 2 days before he admitted that what the airline did was wrong.  His initial statements showed anything but an “eagerness” to be wrong.  If he had simply said something along the lines of: “I am shocked and horrified by what took place last night.  While I am confident our valued employees were doing their best to follow our policies, I need to take full responsibility for putting them in this position.  I must offer my sincerest apologies to Dr Dao, and everyone on that flight, and every one of our customers.  We will get to work today, to make sure that something like this never happens again.  We will make this right.  I hope you can learn to trust us again.”  If this statement had happened immediately, United would have been saved a lot of heartache.

This week, don’t be afraid to be wrong, soon enough you will be.  When you are…. own it!

Have a great week!