Embracing Imperfection: The Power of Learning from Bad Business Decisions

There’s an old Romanian saying, “Numai cine nu munce?te, nu gre?e?te,” which translates to “Only those who don’t work make no mistakes.” It’s a reminder steeped in generational wisdom: mistakes are inevitable for those who take action.

No leader, no matter how seasoned, is immune to making bad business decisions. The real question is not whether you’ll make them, but how you approach them, what you learn, and how you move forward.

Leadership is about navigating uncertainty, making calculated risks, and, sometimes, learning hard lessons when decisions don’t pan out. Reflecting on my own journey, I’ve encountered my share of missteps, but each one offered a valuable opportunity for growth. Here, I want to share two personal stories that shaped my perspective on decision-making and the strategies I’ve developed to move forward smarter and stronger.

Story #1: Ignoring the Signs of a Toxic Team Member

Early in my career as a managing director, I had a team member whose contributions were valuable but came with a heavy price: the negative behaviour created tension and toxicity within the team. I knew something needed to change, but instead of addressing the issue directly, I hesitated.

I convinced myself that skills outweighed the damage caused by the behaviour and that I can mitigate its negative effects. I hoped that colleague would grow out of it, with my help, or that the team dynamics would eventually stabilize. But it didn’t happen so. When I finally made the difficult decision to let go, it was too late to repair some of the damage.

Looking back, I see this as a pivotal leadership moment. I learned that delaying tough decisions can cause far more harm than addressing issues head-on. A team thrives on trust, respect, and accountability, and as a leader, I had to ensure those values were upheld, even if it meant making hard calls.

Story #2: Ignoring My Gut Feeling

At a critical point in time, I started a new project that seemed promising on paper but gave me a nagging sense of unease. My gut told persistently told me something wasn’t right. But, despite my reservations, I pushed forward. I rationalized my doubts, convincing myself that everything new has risks and that my concerns were minor. It wasn’t long before the cracks I had ignored turned into significant roadblocks. In the end, it did not deliver the expected results, and I had to accept the responsibility of having overlooked the red flags.

This experience taught me a vital lesson: intuition matters. While decisions should be rooted in data and logic, your instincts as a leader are honed through years of experience. Ignoring them can be costly, both for your business and for yourself.

Strategies for Moving Forward After a Bad Decision

However, even if bad decisions are inevitable, I learned in the hard way that how you handle them is what defines you as a leader. And here are some strategies that I believe will help you to navigate and grow from these moments:

1. Own Your Mistakes Denial or shifting blame only exacerbates the problem. Take ownership of your decisions, acknowledge where you went wrong, and be transparent with your team. It fosters trust and demonstrates accountability.
2. Analyse Without Overanalysing Reflection is key but avoid dwelling endlessly on what went wrong. Focus on understanding the root cause, whether it was poor communication, misjudged risks, or ignoring key data. Extract the lessons without becoming paralyzed by self-doubt.
3. Separate the Decision from Your Identity A bad decision doesn’t make you a bad leader. It’s easy to let mistakes chip away at your confidence but remember that every great leader has a collection of failures in their portfolio.
4. Cultivate a Decision-Making Framework Develop a system to evaluate risks, gather input, and weigh options. For instance, combine intuition with facts by asking, “What do the data tell me? What does my experience tell me? What is the worst-case scenario if I’m wrong?”
5. Iterate and Adapt One decision rarely defines a business or career. Treat mistakes as opportunities to pivot and refine your approach. The most resilient leaders are those who embrace change and adapt to new circumstances.

Turning Lessons into Strengths

Bad decisions are not the end of the story—they’re just a chapter. Each misstep has the potential to make you a sharper, more empathetic, and more effective leader. My experiences with a toxic team member and an ill-fated project were painful at the time, but they taught me the importance of addressing problems early, trusting my instincts, and building a culture of accountability.

Leadership is a journey, not a destination. Mistakes are part of that journey, shaping you into the leader you’re meant to be. What matters most is how you respond: do you shy away from the lessons, or do you embrace them and use them as stepping stones?

Final Thoughts

As you reflect on your own leadership journey, ask yourself: How do I approach mistakes? Do I own them, learn from them, and use them to grow? If you’ve made a decision recently that didn’t go as planned, take a moment to analyse it, extract the lessons, and move forward smarter and stronger. And remember, only those who take action will ever make mistakes—and only those who learn from them will ever grow.

Let’s embrace imperfection and lead with courage.

#LeadershipLessons #BusinessDecisions #GrowthMindset #ResilientLeadership #OwnYourMistakes

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