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The People Business - Admitting Error is Not A Weakness, It's A Strength
Written by: Craig LewisArticle Overview: Welcome to the people business! It’s a business where the ability to read and interpret mood and behaviour in others is paramount - a business where suddenly the technical knowledge and executions that got you there somehow don’t matter quite so much. People are not going to follow you unless they sense you are real. They’re not going to believe in you unless you earn their trust – and they’re not going to trust you unless you always tell the truth and admit when you’re wrong. To admit a mistake is not a weakness – it’s a strength!
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The People Business - Admitting Error is Not A Weakness, It's A Strength
Welcome to the people business! It’s a business where the ability
to read and interpret mood and behaviour in others is paramount - a business
where suddenly the technical knowledge and executions that got you there
somehow don’t matter quite so much. It’s a business where the more proficient
of us are able to transition from an absolute understanding in one dimension of
an industry into a (seemingly) unrelated second industry where the inspiration
and motivation of others is the principal determinant of success. To many,
promotion to leadership signals the replacement of a company’s best technician
with its poorest manager – but it doesn’t have to be that way!
The people business is as much about awareness as it is
about skill – although the more successful of us are able to find equilibrium
between the two. In the first instance however, newly appointed leaders must
first and foremost make a commitment toward the affiliation and understanding
of those under their care. It is a fact that almost everything in leadership
comes back to a leader’s ability to build high quality relationships. It is my
experience that the level of loyalty between two people increases exponentially
as the level of trust between the two rises – and it is loyalty that matters
most when the odds are stacked against you. The only way you can possibly
generate a loyalty in others is to understand them better - and the best way to
understand them is to get to know them through the leadership strategies you
employ.
Moreover, lasting success in business involves more than
simply building relationships between the leader and the other members of the
team. That is to say, connections must be formed among all members of the team. Every member
of the team must feel the existence of a strong bond between themselves and the
other members of their team – a strong bond that ultimately culminates in the
kind of trust that founders commitment, loyalty and pride on the shop floor. And the only way to accomplish
this within any team is through leadership – through leadership that
appreciates its importance and commits to ensuring its occurrence.
Leaders who immerse themselves in the business of people are
better positioned to interpret what members of their team are thinking and
feeling throughout the journey of their working day. It’s a great challenge –
but a challenge that is prioritised, met and conquered by the truly great
leader! Obviously, there are occasions when even the most diligent observer of
human behaviour may be mistaken in their interpretation – but if a leader has
built a strong relationship based on loyalty and trust the chances are they’ll
be accurate on the vast majority of occasions. The people business is about getting to know your staff
well enough to confidently implement a method of operation most likely to be
effective for each individual member of your team.
Moreover, a leader is also a part of the people business and
has to show that they are real! They have to show they can make a mistake and
openly accept it as error. Admitting error is not a weakness – in so many ways,
it’s actually a strength! It’s the kind of strength that enables a working
relationship to build, because it signifies the kind of honesty and integrity
that brings people together. And it’s often the catalyst that enables people to
unite and successfully handle a crisis situation, simply because it enables a
strong bond to develop prior to the crisis ever taking place. “I got it wrong.
I’m sorry. It won’t happen again. Let’s move on from here” can be a compelling
and bonding admission.
The Kiwis 2006 tri-series campaign was remarkable for two
reasons. The first was the epic culmination of the series that saw the Kiwis
defeated in a golden point extra time final – a game many rugby league pundits
have since claimed to be the greatest international ever played. The second was
even more heavily publicised. It featured an Australian rugby league player, a
Wanganui-born Great Grandmother and a media frenzy that threatened to turn the
game upside down – and in the process bring down the Kiwis and their amiable
coach, Brian McClennan. Grannygate – as it would come to be known – was the story of Nathan
Fein and his desire to play for his adopted country – but it also came to be
the stimulus that united a team and irrevocably enhanced that team’s regard for
a coach who wasn’t afraid to admit a mistake.
The revelation that an
Australian-born player was ineligible to play for the Kiwis was met with a
tirade of condemnation from the media. Quick to grab onto a potentially damning
story, the Sunday newspapers wasted little time in identifying Brian as a
central figure in happenings that had seen Nathan play despite concerns around
his eligibility. By placing Brian at the scene of the meeting in which the
question mark over Nathan’s eligibility were first raised, the media were able
to direct accusations of dishonesty and deceit directly at the team’s coach.
Whilst Brian’s actions could not honestly be construed as deceitful, the truth
was that he had (somewhat naively) assumed Nathan’s eligibility when his
instinct told him this probably wasn’t the case – it was a mistake that
jeopardised the entire campaign and personally placed him in an untenable
position.
And it was only through
Brian’s prompt and open delineation of the what happened - and his readiness to
admit error - that the team was able to uphold its belief in a good people
get good things ideology. Brian’s actions in honestly conveying the actual
happenings and conceding error were merely a reflection of his integrity. It
was an action that triggered an urgent meeting of all players who needed to
first express their despair, and then commit to forging resiliently ahead in
its campaign. The players proclamation, “Bluey, we accept what’s happened and
need you to know we’ve got your back” was both an expression of trust and a
precursor to a record winning victory against Great Britain that very same
week.
It is this
kind of honesty that breeds respect, and I can honestly say that in all my time
in elite, international sport, I have never once witnessed a team that did not
have respect as the cornerstone for its success. Everybody has to have a mutual
respect for each other. Respect is extremely broad, encompassing respect for
each other, respect for the management staff and respect for what the team will
have to go through to achieve its ultimate goal. Once you attain the respect
you desire, developing and nurturing the team chemistry required is a
relatively simple task, but without team members that truly believe in one
another you won't travel too far. I've seen countless teams who've tried to
ignore this foundation step and instead projected into the recruitment of
talent and the conceptualizing of benchmark team tactics. All these teams have
failed when their team has been subjected to extreme pressure from a rampaging
opponent.
There's no
secret formula to developing respect in your organization - positive
communication and standards based on common courtesy and honesty are paramount,
as is a willingness and concerted effort to better know and understand
colleagues. Success is derived not through a sequence of overbearing rules and
regulations, but rather through the acquisition of respect within the
collective – respect for the person and for the performance they are able to
exhibit. It is through the need to better understand and respect each other
that teams learn how to maximize the collective knowledge and talent they
possess. Respect can be in the
giving of time in order to empathize with and develop others. And respect is
omnipotent! There should exist respect for the team and its members and the
strategies you choose to implement. In addition, there also needs to be a
healthy respect for your major competitors - to disrespect them is to
disrespect yourself! And it is the leadership that primarily instills the respect
in the organization. By possessing a caring attitude, by communicating your
concerns and commendations on a regular basis and by being honest, business
leaders are most likely to enjoy the benefits of respect.
Whilst a naïve and less experienced leader might assume
commitment, loyalty and pride from the outset, this is very rarely the case.
The kind of loyalty and pride that hallmarks all great teams is significantly
harder earned than these leaders might wish. People respond to leaders they
respect. They respond to leaders who they believe care and are concerned for
their welfare. And both of these commodities require a passage of time and a
course of commitment that commences with the establishment of a formally
developed rapport. People follow leaders not because they have to, but because
they want to.
Do players play for coaches? Without question they do. And
they play best for the coaches who they feel a strong affinity to – an affinity
that is built up over a proven period of trust, loyalty and honour. Of all the
great coaches and leaders it has been my privilege to associate with, the ones
for whom I have the greatest admiration are those who have clearly set about
building a foundation from which to launch a business relationship of a lifetime.
And these are relationships nurtured and built over time. They are
relationships that have been created from a platform that never once assumed
blind follow ship.
Leaders of quality commence their tenure from a positive of
ascertaining the motives of others. Theirs is not an expectation of blind
allegiance, but rather it is a period of gradual growth and appreciation. Call
it distrust or simple experimentation, the fact remains that it is unreasonable
to expect cultures and relationships to become evident without first a period
of trial. Get to appreciate the motives of others before providing them with an
unequivocal freedom, and be certain that they’ll be doing the same of you. Tell
people what you stand for and care about, but don’t expect them to buy it until
they have been given sufficient time to assess it as a living process. When
you’re in a true period of setback, trust perceived on a brittle foundation
almost always falters. True trust is what you’re aspiring to -the kind of trust
that drives performance when we’re confronted by despair. The kind of trust
that can only be developed through a constancy of effort and a process of
unmitigated honesty and affiliation!
People are not going to
follow you unless they sense you are real. They’re not going to believe in you
unless you earn their trust – and they’re not going to trust you unless you
always tell the truth and admit when you’re wrong. To admit a mistake is not a
weakness – it’s a strength!
Mistakes and Weaknesses
Make the Most of What You Don't Do Well
The Weakest Link
How To Overcome Your Weakness!
What Is Your Weakness?
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About the Author: Craig Lewis RSS for Craig's articles - Visit Craig's website  Click here to visit Craig's website   Aligning Visions and Values To Actual Performance A Small Hole Can Sink A Big Ship The Poor Performer and Other Like Obstacles Its The Little Things That Matter The People Business Admitting Error is Not A Weakness Its A Strength |
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