Are You Making Enough Mistakes?
One thing I like to ask my team is: Are you making enough mistakes? I know, this is not something you hear often, but stay with me, I promise this will make sense. In order to further your knowledge, grow as a person, and grow in your career, you need to push yourself outside your comfort zone and try new things. In doing so, you are likely to make some mistakes along the way, however you will also stretch your boundaries and learn some great lessons.
Most of us do not like to make mistakes, but if you allow your fear of making a mistake to prevent you from trying new things, and pushing yourself, you are not as likely to learn and grow. If you are comfortable with where you are right now, and not looking for any personal or professional growth, that is absolutely fine and your choice. If you are looking to take the next step, here are a few thoughts on how do so.
First and foremost, get out of your comfort zone. If it's new and a bit scary, likely it is a great learning opportunity. Don’t look at something and think to yourself, “I’ve never done that, I don’t think I can”, look at the situation and think “can I figure this out?”. You have many resources at your disposal such as the leaders, peers and the internet that can help guide you to the best solution. Never be afraid to try. If its not the right answer the first time, make some adjustments and try again.
The second thing I encourage my team to do is give it a go before asking for help. Come up with a solution and then go to a peer or leader for advice. You will learn much more working out a problem on your own than being given the answer. A good leader will ask probing questions on your solutions which may trigger the answer you were searching for. You will be surprised at how much you actually know.
The last thing I will mention is be curious, be adventurous, set some stretch goals for yourself. These are all things that will help you in your career and will not go unnoticed by your peers and leaders. The next thing you know, you will be the one being called upon to take on these stretch assignments or projects, and they will only further your knowledge!
Mistakes are a part of life; nobody is immune to them. The best thing you can do is learn from them and keep moving forward. Over my career I have learned more from the mistakes I have made then I have from my successes. Chances are over the years you will be able to look back at some of them and have a good chuckle, I know I have, and I definitely know some of my leaders have. So get out there and try something new, and don’t be afraid to make a mistake or two, they are the teachers you never knew you had!
#recruitment #growth #learning #growthmindset #success
Clinician In Home Therapy at Eliot/MSPCC
4 年Yes, you are completely right and I would like to add that making mistakes should not be something you are afraid of, you should be afraid of not learning from them. A mistake should be seen as a learning curve. Thanks for using your time in such productive topic.
VP Advanced Technology @ PointClickCare | Leading responsible AI innovation in healthcare.
4 年Nice article, Mike! It reminded me of a saying we had a Microsoft Research: "If you succeed at everything you do, you've failed." To me that meant if we were not taking enough risks to potentially fail, we were depriving ourselves of opportunities we needed to learn, to grow, to improve and to innovate (which was ultimately our job). Being willing to improve and grow means being willing to risk not only trying new ideas, but also new ways of working with others who work differently or bring different perspectives. In getting up the courage to try new approaches with people or ideas, to invite change, and potentially to fail, i find it helpful to consider the risks of not changing--which are often tragically worse. Human nature is to overly discount the bigger risks that lie ahead, but often as well the bigger opportunities.
CPO | Technology/SaaS Advisor | Top Female Business Leader Award Winner | People & Culture Strategist | Angel Investor
4 年My best learnings have come from a bad decision, a turn in the wrong direction, perceived v. real value and more. All those mistakes definitely the best, most rewarding learning opportunities I continue to apply to each decision. At times they felt like I had failed in some way but each time I came out with an even better outcome than I had hoped or saw initially. Thx for the reminder Mike.
Talent Acquisition Leader | Creator of the Motivator Assessment Profile (MAP)? | Certified Career Coach
4 年Very true Mike - sometimes you just need to get the reps in so you can solve a similar challenge more effectively the next time! Thanks for sharing another post!
Director, People & Culture Business Partnering at Ignition
4 年This is ??! We have to make it comfortable to be uncomfortable as individuals and teams; mistakes ultimately move us to learn and keep us nimble!