You Were Wrong. Admit It. Now Fix It.

I made a big mistake. My instincts were way off. I'm not proud of how I behaved.

How many times have you heard someone in a position of leadership or influence, which is to say essentially all of us, say those words? I suspect not often enough.

The world is full of examples of spectacular failures. In the business world, those spectacular failures lead to cratered stock, market share losses, and damaged reputations. Take this business trip down memory lane to see what I mean.

Beyond those fears looming at the end of any decision for companies and workplaces, the bottom-line is that no one likes being wrong. Based on my experience, four reasons are usually at the core of this disposition:

1. Pride. A sense of pride in the quality of your work, your skills, your abilities, etc. is certainly not a bad thing. But, when that pride becomes a roadblock to admitting your mistakes and being able to correct them, pride can be professionally deadly. Many years ago in a leadership role, I jumped to the wrong conclusion about a very important project. My boss at the time, while brimming with her own insecurities, was at the receiving end of my error. Pride caused me to delay admitting this mistake. This cost me serious social capital with this woman. Let's just say that her bad side was not to be played with!
2. Cognitive dissonance. Resolvable tension between two different beliefs can be dealt with either by wrestling with them honestly, or fooling yourself to achieve harmony-- albeit, false harmony. As leaders, when we see data that confirm an error, and receive anecdotal evidence which actually supports that data, yet still come to a different decision that brings us comfort--we've officially entered into this territory.
3. The fallacy of sunk costs. That article breaks it down masterfully. Here are the cliff notes: time, effort and/or money invested in what appears to now be a bad decision will never be recovered. Don't convince yourself that staying the course will change that. It's what you choose to do going forward that should be weighed carefully.
4. Skillful incompetence. There are many people who have, sadly, become incredibly skilled at the wrong things, done the wrong ways and with the wrong intentions. The end result is incompetence. That, even more sadly, is exacerbated by the fact that no one around them is bold or caring enough tell them. So their bad decisions, missteps or foolish actions 'sit' as permanent blind spots for them.

Let's apply this to the workplace in the context of our present platter of prolific pain points (alliteration needed for distraction purposes!): the pandemic, global unrest, economic downturns, societal fractures, etc.

You were wrong about succession planning....

As a CEO or senior executive, prior to the pandemic, your People leader warned you frequently about the importance of building up the 'bench' of leaders beneath the C-Suite. She tied the succession plan to the business strategy, laid out the tools to assess and develop talent and dedicated resources to tackle this. You nodded, and ignored her. Then COVID-19 hit and the market tightened. You, along with your team, are now still scrambling to fill leadership gaps and keep the top talent you worked so hard to hire. Admit you were wrong and re-engage on this work. Now!

You were going through the motions as a secretly burned-out People Leader....

You've been with your company as the top People leader for several years and you now hate what you do. Your profession, passion and purpose are colliding in all the wrong ways. You're burned out, and the very last thing you want to talk about is translating the Business strategy for 2022 into a People strategy. Admit that it's time to move on and take the first step by shaping the 'how-to' plan. One pandemic is bad enough...avoid infecting the staff and your team with a bad attitude.

(I saw this picture on a LinkedIn post this morning; I hope it's helpful if the above describes you)

You told your team that they could all work remotely, but.....

As a manager or top leader, you never did the analysis of which roles might not lend themselves to virtual work. Yes, it's true that too many leaders simply didn't trust their workers to achieve results without onsite oversight. And, this old-school thinking cost businesses good faith, good talent and ultimately, better results. That said, there are some roles which require a periodic onsite presence. Here you stand. Rather than feel like you're backtracking, you've chosen to remain largely silent about this reversal, instead holding one-on-one conversations to quietly adjust the messaging. Stop! Own your mistake. Communicate openly. Deal with the blowback.

We do dumb things. We make mistakes. We miss the mark. What we do next has the potential to be incredibly educational and transformative--for both ourselves and our businesses.

Oh, and let #commonsense be your guide.

Joanne (Jo) Rencher, Founder & CEO of Joanne Rencher & Associates: jrencher-associates.com | email: jrencher@jrencher-associates.com Author of Tough As Nails: Finding Your Voice as a Woman in the Workplace