Given that so many people leave their jobs because of their bosses, I started a series on how to be a better manager. Here’s the second post.
When I entered the workforce, I watched supervisors and team members do everything possible to hide their areas of opportunity and their mistakes; they either fixed errors quickly before others noticed, ignored their shortcomings and mistakes (maybe no one would find out?), or blamed others (“She gave me incorrect information and sent it too late.”).
I initially modeled the behavior from my leaders. And I learned the hard way that hiding our faults is not the answer.
When we hide our own imperfect-ness, we create a culture in which team members constantly feel on edge; they worry about being called out for an honest mistake, unfairly blamed, or embarrassed while learning a new skill. In that environment, team members often decline to try new tasks, ask for help, or take risks, and they learn to hide errors or accuse others. That culture ultimately hurts them, us, and the work—including our clients, patients, or consumers. Who wants to acknowledge any mistakes when the environment doesn’t support anything but perfection? Who will fully own their own blunders when managers/peers hide theirs or assign blame? Who is willing to name their areas of opportunity when their leaders model only proficiency at all tasks?
Instead, when we share our human-ness, including our inevitable mistakes, we create an environment in which everyone recognizes that we are all naturally imperfect. We model that it’s ok (and even encouraged!) to take reasonable risks, make mistakes, fix them, and learn from them. We normalize that we all need to develop skills and knowledge—and that we can rely on each other for support as we learn from our errors and figure out how to move forward.
Let’s practice humility; instead of hiding errors and areas for growth (or blaming others), let’s acknowledge and share our imperfect-ness!