How to Handle Leadership Errors
Your position at work may have you making countless decisions every day. Even if you’re right 100% of the time, there’s ultimately going to be a time when you’re not.
Here are a few ways to turn that mistake into an opportunity.
- Be open to new information: there’s a reason why an NFL game has more than 1 referee. When you see the refs huddle up, they’re typically exchanging information. As business leaders, it’s important to have all the information you need before making a decision.
- Own it: always own up to your mistakes. One of the worst things you can do as a leader is to shift the blame. Owning up to your mistakes sets a precedent for your staff.
- Learn from your mistake: it’s crucial that you evaluate the “why” behind your mistake to ensure it doesn’t happen again. Legendary Alabama football coach Paul “Bear” Bryant said, “When you make a mistake, there are only three things you should ever do about it: admit it, learn from it, and don’t repeat it.”
- Move on: it’s crucial to have a short memory when it comes to mistakes. Commit to the steps above and move on from it as quickly as possible. Your attitude sets the tone as a leader.
How to Talk Politics at Work (or not)
With the mid-terms right around the corner, you may find yourself hearing more political chatter than usual.
A recent study from the American Psychological Association found that political conversations are actually stressing out American workers.
Allison Green from Ask a Manager has seen a serious uptick in letters from readers asking how to avoid talking politics at work. The answer is complicated according to Green. If you do find yourself stuck in a political conversation, here are a few ways to deal with it.
- Set boundaries – people often assume you feel the same way that they do. We know that’s not always the case though. If you disagree with someone, Green suggests politely telling your co-worker that you see things differently. Change the subject and move on.
- Do the work: you’re not at work to push a political agenda (unless you’re in politics). While you may be passionate about a particular candidate or issue, it’s important to respect your colleagues and ultimately your bosses by doing your work.
- Social media: You may notice a co-worker expressing political views on their social channels. Should you unfollow them? Green suggests, not necessarily. Unfollowing a co-worker may cause some unnecessary awkwardness. If you don’t want to see their posts, simply hide them from your feed.
Takeaway:
It’s fine to be passionate about politics, but understand how it can impact your career.
“If you’re moving up to a leadership role, you need to show that you are able to get along with all sorts of different people, that you’re not pushing your own political viewpoints at the expense of the comfort of other people in your office, that you’re going to treat people of all political persuasions fairly,” Green says.
Managing Tasks Made Easy
We featured some productivity apps in our last email and got a good response. So, this week we’re featuring some popular task management apps. If you try any, let us know what you think.
- Wunderlist: a quick and easy way to manage and share to-do lists. It also has push-notifications.
- Evernote: organize your life with a digital notebook. Create notes, save websites, articles, etc. There’s a reason why Evernote continues to remain one of the most popular management apps.
- Due: that annoying fly that keeps landing on you, that’s Due. Set a task and Due will legitimately keep bugging you until you mark it as complete.
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