How Do You Lead? By Owning and Sharing

One of the most important elements of being an effective leader is to have the respect of your team. When you are working to earn respect, it is important that you do two things: (1) own your mistakes and (2) share your successes.

Owning your mistakes means that if you make a mistake you need to first and foremost acknowledge it. Then, you need to implement a solution to make sure the error doesn’t happen again. Making excuses or deflecting ownership can impact trust, and trust is imperative for earning respect.

But it isn’t just owning your mistakes, it is also taking ownership of the missteps of your team.

If a team member makes a mistake, it is yours as well. There is a reason the mistake was made. Perhaps the person who made it was the wrong person for the job, maybe they lacked clear directions, or maybe they needed more training. Whatever the case, as the leader, you have responsibility in the situation. So, own it.

In addition to owning your mistakes, another important thing to do is share your success.

Make sure that the entire team receives credit when something great happens. This fosters a teambased atmosphere, when one person wins, everyone wins. Everyone wants their contribution to be recognized, and it is the leader’s responsibility to make sure this recognition happens, even if it means taking less credit for yourself.

For a team to trust and respect you, they need to know you are willing to shoulder a mistake and you’re willing to share credit when the kudos are handed out.

It can be a hard line to walk, but if you own mistakes and share successes, you will find yourself working with a team who trusts you to make them great.

Until next time…we are Advoco, make every minute count.

About Craig: Craig Page is a self-proclaimed “data geek” with nearly 20 years of EAM/maintenance consulting experience. His favorite work is data migrations. He enjoys solving the puzzle to make the data fit and keep the integrity of the information. When Craig isn’t in front of a computer, he is probably running a chainsaw or a tractor. Have a question for Craig? Send him an email!