Rebuild Your Leadership Reputation in 2 Actions
DATE: October 2, 2018
In your leadership role, you genuinely try to avoid making mistakes. But reality says, it’s going to happen. When it does, here are two actions to take to rebuild your leadership reputation when you’ve messed up.
Rebuild Your Reputation, Step 1: Acknowledge your mistake — immediately.
Making a mistake doesn’t mean you’ve lost your ability to lead. It just means you’re human. Acknowledging your mistake immediately demonstrates your willingness to be responsible and accountable, and puts you on the road to rebuild your leadership reputation. Delaying only allows one mistake to linger and potentially grow into other problems.
A lot of people take responsibility for their mistakes but not quickly. In other words, after the world has found out, they confess and beg for forgiveness.
“Oh I am so sorry, I’ve learned my lesson.”
Too late! If you had owned up to your mistake earlier, we wouldn’t have gotten to this particular point.
Rebuild Your Reputation, Step 2: Acknowledge your mistake — publicly.
Is that one tougher? Maybe. But acknowledging your mistake publicly offers you a great chance to rebuild your leadership reputation through leading by example — letting your people know it is okay to not be perfect. But it’s not okay to pretend to be. You don’t want to look as if you’re trying to hide or diminish or discount the mistake or the repercussions in any way.
Some people take responsibility for mistakes quickly — but not publicly.
“I made a mistake but I’m not going to tell anybody else about it. Maybe they won’t find out.”
The only person we’re fooling when we try to hide our mistakes, as if they’re not going to be discovered, is ourselves.
“The only person we’re fooling…is ourselves.”
Some leaders think they must be perfect (or at least perceived to be) to be an effective leader.
Perfection is a myth.
Instead, strive for excellence. And when you mess up, rebuild your leadership reputation by acknowledging it immediately and publicly!
#leadershipreputation #striveforexcellence #perfectionisamyth
Additional Resources
- 4 Leadership Values To Bank On [Blog Post]
- Get Your Free Leaders Journal: 13 Videos to Take Your Leadership from “eh” to EXCEPTIONAL!
- About Phillip Van Hooser
- Leadership Keynotes
- More Blog Posts Like This
Recent Posts
-
How to Manage Your Manager
Too often good employees and good leaders have good intentions, yet they find themselves at a disconnect. So what can you do when you find you need to manage your manager? One of our viewers shared this scenario and asked this question… “I’m a very goal-driven person, and I have things I want to accomplish in my […]
-
Setting Better Expectations with Your Team
Could you be setting better expectations with your team? If you’re looking to improve performance, starting with baseline expectations may be the next right step for you. In Episode 10 of The Man & The Millennial Show, we offer you five questions to help you get better results by setting better expectations. #settingexpectations #betterexpectations #employeeengagement […]
-
World-Class Service & The Masters Who Create It
During my 30+ year professional speaking career, I’ve enjoyed a number of incredible, world-class service experiences. But my experience from twenty years ago this week is hard to top. In 2002, I spent 10 days working as a “paid volunteer” at The Masters Championship at Augusta National Golf Club. A tough job, but somebody’s got to […]