PMcrunch

Making mistakes is not only human; it is an immutable law of nature.  No matter what anybody does or says, mistakes will happen along the way – by you, me, and others.  It is how we accept this fact and handle them that provides us the opportunity to show our character and skill as leaders.

A few thoughts about “mistakes”:

1. Many of you may know of the baseball great, Honus Wagner.  What many people do not know is that he not only was one of the greatest baseball players of all time, but he also was a leader in errors committed!  Because he was so agile, he got his glove on the ball more often, and surely often just missed some great plays.  In light of this, we can ask ourselves the question:  Are we getting our glove on the ball often enough?  How far are we stretching beyond the normal and expected?  Are we taking reasonable risks (and sometimes ‘unreasonable actions!), or just playing it safe and going for the sure things?

2. As managers, we are responsible for the outcome of others.  To be leaders, we need to provide the platform for others to try, to stretch, to test the new ideas.  A true leader develops leaders, and we do it by letting subordinates ‘stretch their wings and make some mistakes’.  That being said, we are still responsible for results, so we need to take responsibility for any outcomes.  

Hence, it pays, as a leader, to have full command of the entire picture of your project:  the deliverables and timeline, the risks, the team, the stakeholders.  We must take accountability for the overall project, and recognize how much latitude to give people on the team.  With that overall understanding, we have the choice to micro-manage people, or to confidently set the borders of their sub-projects and let them run with it, letting them ‘safely’ make mistakes.  This is the best path forward for us and them, and  the risks are controlled.

By taking a leadership attitude toward risk and making mistakes – for ourselves and those on our teams – we can build trust, build bridges of communication, and build more effective teams, and ultimately become more effective and achieve greater results.
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John Reiling, PMP
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