Speak about your mistakes often, particularly if you are in a position of power. Tell about what went wrong and what you did learn. Anticipate how the next time will be.
It’s also a great way to assess people around you and the environment you are in. If you recently joined a company, and nobody talks about mistakes ever, particularly when everyone is listening, that is not a company that knows how to learn and promote innovation.
Mistakes are essential. Promote them to become better.
Being around others means that most of the times you will not get it your way.
You can fight that. Most bad managers do. Parents and kids alike often do. Partners sometimes do. And that rarely changes the fact that you will not get it your way.
Better to embrace it then. Allocate space in your plan – both mental and physical – for others to be. Be ready to accept and flex boundaries. Clarify where the limit is and stick to that in all circumstances.
We are all in it for our own betterment.
What good does your resentment do?
Perhaps you have been treated unfairly. Perhaps you did truly deserve that promotion. Perhaps that person in your team is really after you. Perhaps everyone should really buy into your idea. Perhaps you do deserve more.
And what good does it do to act up because of that? How closer does that take you to your objectives?
Resentment is bad not because others might not deserve it – they usually don’t. Resentment is bad because it is not efficient.
The moment you feel it, do acknowledge it, do talk about it, and then do move on.
We lash out at people, we judge, we confine, we define, we spend most of our days commenting and evaluating what others do. And the truth is, we do not know any better.
It is perhaps our insecurity that makes us feel so certain when it comes to others.
One of the things that will make you stand out most in business (and not only) is to close the circle on your promises.
This is true for individual contributors, teams, departments, and organizations as a whole.
If you promise something that you know you can’t deliver, or that you consistently don’t deliver over a period of time, the promise is most likely a way for you to get out of a difficult conversation, an awkward moment, a temporary discomfort.
It is not worth it.
Say only what you know you’ll do. And if you end up not doing it, give a reason and follow up.
When you meet your commitments, you build trust, gain confidence — look, you really can do it! — and grow the kind of backbone needed to say no when you truly can’t take something on.
Whitney Johnson, You Have to Stop Canceling and Rescheduling Things. Really.
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