Why Leaders Should Be Willing To Let Their People Make Mistakes?

“You’ve got to allow yourself to make a lot of mistakes. Then the real magic happens. If you just play it really safe, you won’t get any treats.”  — Bjork

Oftentimes, leaders make a common mistake, wherein they are terrified of the possibility of making mistakes and stepping beyond their comfort zones. Nothing short of perfection is expected of their team. This particular thought process is flawed; and here is why. 

Humans are prone to mistakes, it’s natural, sometimes inevitable. I believe that if we aren’t making mistakes somewhere along the way, we most likely are not trying enough things that force us out of our comfort zones and that in itself is a mistake.

Recalling a recent experience, an individual from my team was promoted to a more managerial position, due to their eye for quality (a fundamental component of managing). When this certain individual was promoted, their workload increased quite a bit, however, to relieve them from their more tedious tasks, they were assigned a team that would work with them. On a per person basis of tasks to be completed, it was less than before. However, over time they began to feel overwhelmed, and made a lot more mistakes. Now you’ll wonder, with 200% more resources and only an increment of approximately 50% more work, why did the person feel overwhelmed?

The reason is simple, they didn’t change their system. With workload increasing, they needed to use ‘management muscles’ that they never had. For example, properly delegating tasks or briefing the team appropriately. This individual did not review work and give proper feedback, instead taking on many incomplete tasks or poor-quality work for themself.

This resulted in a few complaints from clients, albeit manageable ones. It is understandable that client dissatisfaction in any capacity can be worrisome but even so, I believe that a leader should not be afraid of complaints, no matter how small or big. As a leader, if you began to fear every little mistake your team were to make and take the easy way out by reassigning tasks, you will likely not make any strides forward. The individual who you keep ‘saving’ will never gain the courage needed to move forward. They will continue to mess up, because they know there will always be someone to come to their rescue, reassign their tasks and save them from drowning.

Your role as a leader is to bring out the best in your team. Condition your team in a manner wherein if something were to go wrong, it should set off immediate alarm learning bells, that would push them into growth mode. A great leader allows their people the freedom to make mistakes and a person of good values is one that owns them, learns from them, fixes them and puts in place a system to ensure that the same mistake is never again repeated.

Mistakes should not be considered a form of failure but rather, they should be simply seen as the process of eliminating ways that do not work in order to make way for solutions that will or clues, breadcrumbs to lead to success. 

A lot of leaders talk the talk but when it comes down to it, can they walk the walk? They want to achieve growth within their team, but are they willing to take a risk? I have come across a significant number of leaders over the years that panic at the first sign of difficulty that their team is facing, but what they fail to realise is that when a leader breaks down under pressure, so do their teams.