Lessons in Leadership: Trial and Error

My climb to CEO began modestly: I wanted the ability to take care of my family and I wanted to solve issues I saw in the tech learning industry. I didn’t have grandiose notions of moving mountains or transforming lives. However, looking back and reflecting on my experience, I realize it’s hard to be a successful business owner without considerably altering lives. We impact the worlds of our employees, our vendors, and our clients with every decision we make and the work culture we promote.?

As with anything in life, being an entrepreneur was not exempt from moments of trial and error. Becoming self-aware and learning from those moments were, and still are, crucial in becoming a leader and building a company culture to be proud of. Here are a few nuggets I learned along the way.

Admit Your Mistakes It’s hard to admit mistakes. We’ve all experienced the heaviness that comes with owning up to it. But admitting our mistakes not only shows humility and self-awareness, it also shows others that it's ok for them to admit their shortcomings as well. Giving each other some grace and leaving room to learn from our faults gives us the space we need to grow.

Grow in the Face of Failure Failure doesn’t have to be just failure. We get to make the choice to let our missteps guide us into higher learning and greater emotional intelligence. When we fail at something, we can either pout about it and wish it went another way, or we can ask ourselves what went wrong and use that knowledge to improve future outcomes.?

Trust and Empower Your People Trusting your team means equipping them with the tools necessary to get the job done and empowering them to perform well. Trust is hard, especially when it comes to handing over responsibilities important to the growth of the company you built. But trusting your team is essential to the growth of both the business and the individuals helping you run it.?

Fear is Not in Charge Just because you have fear doesn’t mean you shouldn’t do something. I’ve learned that fear and trepidation are not barricades - they are checkpoints that make us think harder about our next steps. We can’t let our minds become runaway trains with thoughts that keep us from pursuing our endeavors.

Leadership roles are always on display, and our reach goes a lot further than we realize sometimes. Giving ourselves a chance to acknowledge mistakes, reflect on lessons learned, and germinate our ruminations into positive thoughts and actions leads to an everyday vocabulary that is optimistic and encouraging. We can use our stance as senior executives to complement and galvanize the unique qualities others have to offer.