Who hasn’t felt the gut-wrenching feeling of knowing you’ve made a terrible mistake, and soon after, realizing that you’ll get into trouble because of it? In a work set-up everyone will tell you it is all but human to make mistakes, but we have been programmed to believe that making mistakes could get you fired, or accosted for.
At Rocket Station, we believe that providing an environment open to making mistakes is essential in building a community of well-seasoned leaders who are constantly growing.
In fact, learning how to turn mistakes into lessons is a skill that is developed through the years. Public speaker Tod Dewett talks about making Marvelous Mistakes in one of his leadership courses. He isn’t the only person talking about how mistakes can be beneficial in developing people though. In a Ted Talk with Dr. Brian Goldman, entitled: Doctors make mistakes too-can we talk about that? Dr. Goldman explains an emotional account of how the mistakes he made as a doctor and his inability to talk about them caused him to develop intrusive thoughts and self-doubt. It was only when he acknowledged his mistakes and started talking about them that he began a journey in bettering himself not just as a doctor, but also as a human.
With Goldman and Dewett at the fore, this Rocketeer seeks to share just how you can best develop yourself by making marvelous mistakes.
Mistakes can only help us if we discuss them.
Mistakes can only help us grow when it is discussed in an environment that is open to collaborating and pivoting through mishaps. Casting blame on others and shame is counterproductive. The only time people learn from mistakes is when they discuss what went wrong, where the point of contention is and how it can be fixed.
Study mistakes like they’re skills.
To acknowledge a mistake is one thing to study it is another. Dissecting and trying to trace where things went wrong and while learning from it can pave the way for opportunities that point to growth. Dewett explains that dwelling on mistakes is not the same as studying them. Dwelling on mistakes is a defensive and self-flagellating stance, while studying it takes a proactive viewpoint that points toward betterment.
Do not fear mistakes.
Dewett discusses that the reason why people don’t learn from mistakes is that they always try their hardest to avoid them. In the pursuit of perfection, there is an inability to authentically extract lessons that cannot be learned through books and know-how alone. Experiences are teachable because there is a trial-and-error phase that makes people go through a self-learning phase as a result.
Push hard enough to innovate and create significant mistakes.
Taking curiosity to where you can push the limits of your creativity in managing projects or spearheading something new can get you into marvelous mistakes. Marvelous mistakes offer high-value learnings which you can apply to future endeavors.
At Rocket Station we develop our people into leaders who are beyond capable in managing mistakes and making the best out of it. Subscribe in our newsletter to have the best articles on topics like self-development in your inbox.
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