Being Wrong

Being Wrong

It's great to know stuff - knowledge is power and the benefits of crystallized intelligence are many, but the reality is that the more you know, the more opportunities you have to be wrong.

I have a bit of a perverse relationship with knowing. I LOVE to be right - I'm right a lot (just ask my family they will tell you how often I tell them I'm right ?? ). When I'm really honest with myself I actually love being wrong more . I mean, I don't love being wrong, but learning from being wrong is much more fun. It's often when we are wrong that the biggest insights occur. It's also a lot more funny to be wrong than it is to be right, and it reinforces my belief that my life is a comedy.

A few things I know that I learned were wrong just this week

  1. A big reason for the paygap is the fact women don't negotiate salary well (or early in their career) - WRONG! This was true in the past but is no longer true.
  2. Women choose fields that pay less and this is why they are paid less - [Mostly] WRONG! - when women move into high paying fields pay goes down.
  3. Women just need to get high status sponsors - [Mostly] WRONG! In fact, women can be penalized by seeking high status networks and sponsors.

Each of these on their own are interesting, taken together it causes me to ask a different question - how much of the entire playbook on leadership development is built with the assumption that what works for men will also work for women.

Take a minute with that one - I'll wait.

This is a productive failure that finds me [reluctantly] quoting Annie Hall "everything our parents said was good is bad ". Everything we know needs a nuanced re-think and most importantly, more data . I suspect this goes well beyond leadership development.

Amy wondered if I was wrong also about the discussion on self vs. other care this week. It's possible other care is more urgent and helpful for men but might be already an over invested area for women. Maybe we're projecting.

Maybe I'm wrong.

But I will say this - I'm very curious and I hope you are too. We all need to embrace being wrong more and use it to our advantage. One thing is true, we will likely get many chances to practice.



Jennifer Davis

Ecosystem Development Director

7 个月

Thank you Meg! I enjoyed this one. A great topic for a podcast. I see you running a podcast series for woman leaders, don’t you ??

Lexy Martin

Chief Redirector. Publishing my research on how to make a successful pivot (redirection) upon retiring or from one job or career to another. Always willing to chat about redirecting or help with connections

8 个月

This is good. I also love reporting from qualitative research and having people disagree with it. I learn that my sampling needs improvement. I also end up having more people want to be interviewed to join my sample. #DoBetter #Growth

Maria Colacurcio

CEO at Syndio | Co-founder of Smartsheet | B2B SaaS | HRTech

8 个月

Hi Meg Bear, thank you for posting this. I think about this a lot in the context of failure. What is it about losing (or being wrong) that can either fuel us and ignite our curiosity or push us into a hole of self doubt? I am competitive and I hate losing, but I love the process that comes after a failure. It's a eyes-wide-open chance to address areas of weakness and identify opportunities I may have missed. As for your question about leadership development and the research, it's an interesting topic. I think the outcomes from research would change if we widened the net of participants. We are certainly seeing that in the realm of athletics. For decades, the type of training for men was applied holistically to women. There are now studies coming out that take into account things like hormone changes, pre/post pregnancy and the variations in testosterone, etc. and the recommendations are quite different. Something to think about.

Chiara Bersano??

Human Resources ?Artificial Intelligence ?Faculty ?Speaker

8 个月

Love you Meg and there is SO MUCH RIGHT in this blog. Yes - what works for men doesn’t work for women. Networking - works differently. Mentorship - different. Professionalism - different. Sherryanne Meyer, SHRM-SCP, HRIP add to this pleeeeeeze

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