Being a leader is about living your life in a way that inspires or encourages others. To lead is to serve. If you make it your goal to do the best that you can and to help people, then you can't fail. I encourage you to commit to keep learning.

This is newsletter #21 in the series. If you have missed prior newsletters, and are enjoying the series, we encourage you to take advantage of the discount offer for Mike's Leadership and Life Skills Program. Click on the coupon at the bottom of this page.

We all make mistakes so join the crowd—you’re in good company! Thomas Edison’s teachers said he was “too stupid to learn anything.” He was fired from his first two jobs for being nonproductive and made 1,000 unsuccessful attempts at inventing the light bulb. Did you know that Abraham Lincoln went to war as a captain and managed to finish as a private? Talk about mistakes! Consider Henry Ford’s words the next time you make a mistake and feel like a failure, “Failure provides the opportunity to begin again, more intelligently.”

Mistakes happen. If you make a mistake, it means you're trying, you're doing something, and you're learning. If you make a mistake, someone is very likely going to see it, and they will probably point it out, or even make fun of you. Mistakes might make us feel like a failure or appear foolish or incompetent. It could be embarrassing, but so what? If you don't try because you're afraid to make a mistake, then you'll always be just where you are now—no growth.

So, given the fact that you are going to make mistakes, here are three steps to take to help you bounce back after you make one:

1. Learn the lesson. Any thoughts about a mistake made should focus on how and what to learn from it. What was controllable? What will you do if the situation arises in the future? Is there anyone that can learn from your mistake? In other words, accept the responsibility for your decision that led to the mistake, learn from it, and then move on.
   
2. Avoid dwelling on the mistake; remind yourself that we all make them. By not dwelling on our mistakes, it’s easier to set them aside and move on. Once you’ve made a mistake, there’s no way to go back in time and do or say things differently. It’s done. Going over it, again and again, serves no useful purpose. In fact, doing so can lead to excessive self-criticism or increased embarrassment.
3. Create a positive mental attitude towards the remainder of your tasks. A positive outlook maintains your ability to change the direction of your energy instead of continuing to make mistakes because you’re upset. Remind yourself that you’ve been successful many times before—and will be again! Focus on what good performance looks like.
   

Whether the mistake is yours or someone else’s, don’t aggravate the issue by asking: “Why did you do such a stupid thing?” but rather ask, “How can we correct this?” File it away immediately. If further analysis is necessary, it should be done at a later time, after the immediate negative impacts have lost their edge.

Many people aren’t willing to accept responsibility for a mistake and tend to “blame” others, even without cause. Any “blame” for a mistake should not be focused outward. Dealing with the aftermath of a mistake should always be focused on a controllable aspect of the situation (you should have made sure the circuit was turned off) rather than a personal weakness you might think you have (I’m stupid, or I can't do this). Be open-minded about mistakes and realize that they’re going to happen—it’s what we learn from them that counts.

We all have “bad” days and “good” days. One of the most important things to learn to do is to develop and maintain a positive attitude, especially when it seems the most difficult. No one really intends to go out and make mistakes. If you don’t know that you have to do something, or if you haven’t been properly trained to do something, you might make a mistake simply by not doing it.

Mistakes that happen because of a lack of information or a lack of correct information are part of the learning process. Mistakes that happen because someone doesn’t care aren’t so forgivable. They might be excused or tolerated once or twice, but there should be no place in your business or on your team for those that don’t care. No matter how hard we might try, or how well-planned a process may be, people are human, mistakes are made, and consequences exist. Join Thomas Edison, Abraham Lincoln, and Henry Ford in recognizing that mistakes are opportunities to LEARN.

The above content is extracted from Mike Holt's Leadership Skills textbook.