Leaders lead with imperfections
"Bad leaders care about WHO is right, Great leaders care about WHAT is right"
-Simon Sinek
The story of achieving perfection began with the first human on the face of the earth. Since then human race is just in a rush to find perfection in every aspect of their lives. History is quite evident to the fact that many have tried but could never ever reach to the pinnacle of perfection and there were always many sectors for improvement. And this holds validation till the end of times.
We need to remind ourselves that our race is to reduce imperfections and not attain perfection because this is the hard reality and actuality of mankind.
This perspective is an important aspect of humanity, which needs to be clearly and absolutely comprehended by each one of us, including all the leaders amongst us.
To become great leaders, we have to realize our own imperfections namely our fears, our skill deficits, our core issues etc. freeing ourselves from negativity, irrelevant assumptions and limiting beliefs even if takes us to overcome our egos and approach experts in these fields.
The first step for a leader is to step out from the state of denial and realize that they are imperfect. Once this acceptance happens, they would be able to lead their teams empathizing the imperfections in their subordinates and would begin realizing that people do not have flaws, but the systems created have the flaws either allowing or leading subordinates towards mistakes. Upon this realization, leaders begin to lead by sharing and motivating through their own success stories of overcoming their mistakes helping them move ahead towards reducing imperfection and not attaining perfection.
"Practice does not make one perfect, Practice reduces the imperfection"
Great leaders do not shy away from enhancing and honing their skills. They are keen to learn more and more. It does not matter to them from who they learn thus leading by example.
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I would love to give tell you a story of a learning in my life, which I consistently iterate in all my workshops hoping participants find value in it.
The Story
It was a busy day in the organization where in me and my team was all busy with important correspondence and order executions. Suddenly, one of our delivery drivers rushed into our cabin requesting for a staple pin remover, to which I responded immediately.
He began using it by pulling the pin through the vicious jaws of the staple remover, gripping over the poor staple pin, which loosened it. Now here is the twist, after this step I use to remove the staple pin with my fingers. But my dear driver friend confidently turned the staple pin remover upside down and used the other end as a tweezer to pull the pin out. I was stunned for that moment and felt so dumb for not knowing this skill although I had been using the remover for several years. I thanked him for teaching me this skill and that moment gave me the best of the lessons in my life i.e. learning happens anytime and from anyone, we just need keep ourselves ready to learn and welcome it in our lives.
We need to affirm to ourselves every single day that "I AM A LIFE LONG LEARNER BECAUSE I AM NOT PERFECT."
Thus, Leaders lead with imperfections and provide directions to reduce them rather than attaining perfection.
Article by Sameer S., Professional Growth Strategist & Business Storytelling Coach
Follow on Linkedin - @growthcoachSameer