Date: 12/2/2016

Title: LEADING AND LEARNING – Part 4

By Bryan Arzani

In the duty paradigm, we don’t have to worry about making mistakes. We can always say, “My boss told me to do it this way.” Or, “the shareholders want quick returns, not steady growth.” We have the blanket of “I was just doing what I was told” to throw over our heads. We don’t have to be accountable. Unfortunately, our news reports are rife with examples of leaders NOT being held accountable.

In the achievement paradigm, we are obsessed with winning….with looking as though we are the best. To go back and study a mistake…to try to learn from it…means that we have to acknowledge we made a mistake. And, you don’t win a trophy that says ‘Greatest Mistake Maker—2016’.

Yet, in the integrity paradigm, the confident leader shines. He/she is comfortable wearing the skin of a mistake, as long as something is learned from it. Doctors call this ‘morbidity and mortality rounds’. Manufacturers call it ‘quality review’. What do you call it?

This is not a time for a gotcha mentality. It’s not about identifying who made the mistake. It’s about identifying the history of the process, and where something went wrong. It’s about determining where something can be done differently, in order to make improvements.

Our invitation to you, as leaders, is to determine when your learning opportunities are. To understand that you don’t have to repeat history. That it’s OK to say you didn’t know something, or that you made a mistake. Because only by doing that, only by opening ourselves up to learning, do we allow ourselves to become better leaders.

To learn more about how to practice this understanding, contact Results Group, LLC at www.ResultsGroupLLC.com or 515-330-2866.