How important is it to learn from one’s own mistakes to become a successful leader?

Traditionally, mistakes and leadership have been two things seen as being mutually exclusive. But as we have seen in innumerable occasions in the past, there’s a lot of overlap between the two – that’s not to say leaders make mistakes all the time or those who make mistakes will become successful leaders. It’s just that most successful leaders have erred, some grievously, but have eventually gone on to achieve what they set out to. Or even surpass it. What enabled them to do it? To get there, let’s begin with the basic question of what leadership is.

Leadership is one term that’s used as loosely as ‘strategy’ is. But at a high level, it is the ability to influence a person or a group of people to work towards a common goal. Influence does have a negative connotation but, in this context, it implies the ability to inspire people into action. This can’t happen overnight. The most important pillar on which the monument of leadership stands is credibility. And this is gained through consistency in the way values are expressed, one such being leading from the front.

Leading from the front entails adapting to situations and responding as needed – it doesn’t take a leader to do what’s already been tried and tested. In this world filled with volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity (popularly known as VUCA), a new mix of situations and contexts arise every moment and these need a different paradigm of thoughts and actions. This is the breeding ground for leaders – those who are able to break away from the mold and come up with a response to the situation carve a niche for themselves. This is indeed fraught with risks. Wading through unchartered territory is not something everyone takes up easily, primarily because of the fear of failure. Those who do, do it knowing there’s a possibility of making a mistake and the opportunity of learning from it.

But why is this important for a leader? Someone who leads from the front needs to inculcate the belief that making mistakes in the ethical pursuit of success is okay. If there was a ‘perfect’ way of doing things without mistakes, everyone would have been doing that.

But why is this important for a leader? Someone who leads from the front needs to inculcate the belief that making mistakes in the ethical pursuit of success is okay. If there was a ‘perfect’ way of doing things without mistakes, everyone would have been doing that. That’s the world of Utopia. We are up against the world of VUCA. Navigating through this is extremely tricky and a leader who encourages experimentation and radical thinking will have an influence on followers. More importantly, someone who practices it will inspire. At the same time, it’s also important to show what needs to happen after a mistake, how to gain something out of it. This is an art that many successful leaders are good at – the art of converting apparent sunk costs into something worthwhile.

A major chunk of one’s learning comes from doing things and the most impactful of these come from mistakes that are made. A mistake indicates either an undesired outcome from an appropriate process or an inappropriate process itself (in line with the philosophy – means matter as much as the end). For a person who isn’t looked up to, this learning is optional – they can keep making mistakes, even similar ones and still survive. But the expectations of a leader are entirely different. There’s also a shift in the expectations when it comes to a leader – from not making mistakes to learning from mistakes. This says volumes about how the environment has changed. A leader who learns from his mistakes not only promotes a culture of thinking out of the box but also shows how a setback can be used to initiate a turnaround. Like how a full-stop in punctuation, seen as an end can be changed into an ellipsis to signal that there’s more coming.

This is all the more important for leaders in business today, who are at the forefront of technological transformation. This change has been happening for a while, but it’s picking up pace constantly. With opportunities to leap forward coming up so often, leaders are making decisions with the limited time and information in hand – the luxury of waiting for information is non-existent. In this omnipresent scenario, not making mistakes is a dream. The next best alternative – and a practical one too – is to look at a mistake and see what it can be turned into. If it was a decision in a completely new setting, the amount of insights from mistakes is enormous. Even in familiar scenarios, mistakes show how things beyond the obvious can impact the outcome and enable the leader to refine the process of planning and decision making.

A mistake is usually seen as a fall, but in reality, it just keeps a leader grounded. With feet firm on the ground, the learning from the mistake lets the leader take off again.

Just like products, differentiation is important for leaders to succeed. One way to do this is to strengthen the learning process so that it positions the leader to anticipate similar or related mistakes before they happen. A mistake is usually seen as a fall, but in reality, it just keeps a leader grounded. With feet firm on the ground, the learning from the mistake lets the leader take off again. The transition from a leader to a successful leader doesn’t happen in a day – it’s the monument that needs to be built on strong pillars. Mistakes test the structural integrity of the pillars, but the learning helps reinforce them. Only with this internal process of reinforcement, the monument of leadership can stand tall amidst the storm that’s ever approaching.

Published under 'Leadership' in IIM Ahmedabad's blog Writing on the Wall. Link: https://student-blog.iima.ac.in/?p=2819