Your First Mistakes Could Lead To A Second Wind

How many of you are presently a manager? How many of you have managed, or would like to be a manager someday?

How many of you are presently a leader? How many of you have lead or would like to be a leader someday?

Interesting difference isn’t there? – The weight of each word carries distinctly different emotional overtones for you, I would suspect: 

Manager.

Leader.

While some may be thrust into positions of authority, the accompanying respect does not find its way to the surface quite so easily. Often you must earn the respect of those given to your care with blood, sweat and tears. It is this ability to seek out how to earn and instill an intrinsic trust for all that look to you which defines you as their leader.

In looking to my past, I replay my first attempts in building a team. They were abysmal attempts to manage through my lack of confidence in my own sense of direction. I did not have the appropriate level of relationship with my team members, I attempted to lead by consensus rather than seek counsel from my experts and make a ruling, and made poor decisions regarding team fit.

The net result was that I frustrated high capacity performers and brought them into an organization at which they bristled. Ultimately, my missteps lead to the natural reciprocal – a poorly performing group, frustrated team members, and lots of wasted time and effort.

Lessons learned are sometimes hard-won. These most certainly were, but I will cringingly recall those days as mortar to again cement my resolve to serve my team, but expect no less from them return. There is no silver bullet to being an effective manager or admired leader. But when you stumble through your first round of mistakes, you may just find your second wind.

Image courtesy of Rodrigo Soldon.

Ken Stewart’s website, ChangeForge, focuses on the collision between the constantly changing worlds of business and technology in an information-centric world. Ken is also the founder of Seeking the Son. He is always interested in connecting; To discover the many ways you may connect with him, visit him at DandyID.