Dear Readers,
Do you currently serve on a nonprofit board? Are you curious about serving on a nonprofit board? If so, be sure to look for the special opportunity that you won’t want to miss following this article.  

The Best Leaders Make Better Mistakes: The 6 Habits that Produce Superior Results

In high school, art was one of my favorite topics. I took it all the years they allowed me and then received a special dispensation to be a “student aid.”

Susie Anderson, the teacher, was everything I could hope for in an art teacher. Bright colors, loud everything, big hair and a miniature poodle named “Grey Poupon.”

She was also very skilled, dedicated, generous, and an excellent teacher – but a teenager only recognizes those things in retrospect.

She was also terrifying.

In the middle of carefully trying to capture depth of field, or contrast, or the delicate branches of a tree or a bird in the distance…she’d come shrieking across the room, “Red X’s! Red X’s! Red X’s”

Along the way, without slowing down, she’d snatch away someone’s paintbrush, jam it into someone else’s red paint and then assault my painting.

With big red X’s.

Then there I was – My nearly perfect replication of Van Gough with red X’s all across the crows and cornfield.

I won’t lie – it was terrifying. It was a complete violation of my delicate psyche and personal space. It’s probably litigious behavior these days.

But, wow. It taught me to paint.

Stop Goofing Around and Paint

Most paintings are ruined by being afraid. Fear of using the wrong color, getting the shape wrong, not capturing that ethereal “feel” of a dragon attacking the knight.

So, we wouldn’t use enough paint. Our colors were too tame. The contrasts weren’t strong enough. We’d piddle away trying to get lines exactly right.

Big red X’s!

The teacher would X out our attempts at perfection. There was no easy way to fix a big red X. You just had to do it over.

Mistakes were ok. Taking so long to be perfect that you never got anything done (or worse, your painting had the life painted out of it) was not acceptable.

Paint. Paint boldly. Get the painting done.

Stop Goofing Around and Lead

Most leaders are ruined by being afraid. Fear of making the wrong decision. Fear of discovering what everyone else already knows, and that “I don’t know everything”. Fear of making a mistake. Fear of conflict. Fear of dealing with…whatever.

So, we don’t make decisions at all. Or we can’t acknowledge that we just don’t know something. Or we can’t stand smarter people. Or we make the right decision but do it the wrong way. Or the conflict doesn’t magically go away. Neither does…whatever.

Big red X’s!

It might be kind of exciting if I could run into conference rooms and slash big red X’s all over a meeting.

• Crucial topics that were tabled. Again. Red X’s!
• Decisions that were deliberated to the point where the conversation wasn’t even the same topic. Red X’s!
• Decisions actually made – with no timelines, no one responsible for execution. Red X’s!
• Routinely avoided topics that are critical for success. Red X’s!
• Conflict that is carefully skirted around, euphemized or denied. Red X’s!

There is a lot of room for Red X’s.

Yes – It Matters if Your Art is Good. But Only if You are Actually Producing It.

Sure, bad artists create art no one wants to look at. It does matter if you can paint well. But no one will see the painting you never finish.

You’ll never show a painting if you are scared of what others think.

You never get good at painting until you’ve painted a lot and made many mistakes that others see (and learn how to correct them quickly.)

Painting is a visual art. It doesn’t make much sense unless people are looking at it.

Leadership is a social art. It doesn’t make sense unless people experience it.

Lots of leaders make decisions no one wants to live with. But too many leaders don’t even make decisions.

There are very few permanent, unchangeable decisions. In other words, you will rarely ever make a decision that people “have” to live with.

Make decisions. Make a lot of them. Take time to learn from them. Acknowledge the not-so-great decisions quickly. Fix them fast.

Six Habits of Decisive (and more effective) Leaders

In my experience, leaders who make bold decisions (and are able to course-correct when needed) accomplish far more than leaders who never make decisions.

As a planner and a strategist, I resisted that idea for much of my career.

But eventually I just had to acknowledge that leaders who were less afraid of making mistakes than they were of inaction just tended to create more success.

Here are the six habits you should incorporate into your leadership and leadership team:

• Be clear on what you intended in the first place: Too many leaders are only vaguely aware of what they are trying to accomplish. Be clear about it. You can always change this later – but be clear about it now.

• Relentlessly execute: Act big, act fast. Make it happen. There are very few leadership decisions that need to be made surgically. Do that for those. But they still need to be made and acted upon.

• Have a way to see the mistakes fast: You need Red X’s. Define success indicators. Find a way to measure success. Create accountability. You might hate the Red X. You might feel abused. You might feel like your effort was unacknowledged or wasted. You might be tempted to resent the Red Xer. Don’t. Stay curious. It won’t feel good, but you need trusted partners who are willing to shriek, “Red X’s” at you.

• Be willing to acknowledge mistakes quickly: With expediency, put time and effort into correcting the decision. If you are putting more energy into avoidance or excuses than just getting on with things, you condemn yourself to leadership mediocrity.

• Learn your lessons: Whenever I was red X’ed, I immediately wanted to know why. After learning why, I worked to avoid getting red X’ed again. I still received more X’s. But usually not for the same reasons.

• Try again: Leadership is mostly OJT. You learn from doing. Keep doing. Do a lot. Instead of trying to avoid this cycle, try to run through it as quickly as you can.

Move On to Better, More Interesting Mistakes

As I recall, I attracted more red X’s than the other students. The teacher was always completely unrepentant. My complaining only fed her satisfaction in what she had done.

The mistakes I made when I first learned to paint were boring ones. They were the same basic mistakes everyone made. Over time, I became a better artist. I also became less hesitant and cautious. I was less worried about getting things right the first time and more focused on moving the painting in the direction I wanted.

Eventually, the red X’s were no longer that big of a deal. They happened. I couldn’t avoid them. I made changes and kept painting. My paintings became bigger (huge actually) and bolder.

I grew more confident.  I regularly tackled artistic challenges that were technically beyond my skills. Which brought more red X’s. Which helped me grow my skills. And resulted in even better results than before.

Lead the same way. You’ll outpace everyone else stuck getting it right.

Take good care,

Christian

Free Training Opportunity!

Have you ever wanted to serve on a nonprofit board? But maybe it seems intimidating or you aren’t sure what it would mean?

Or perhaps you do serve on a board but realize you aren’t really sure what your role is or how a board can even be “high-performing?”

I currently serve on two boards. I have served on many more in the past. I’ve consulted with and trained more boards than I can remember. In my experience, 95% of boards are not serving their organization or mission as well as they could. Most don’t know it.

On October 21^st, I’m offering a free webinar called Best Practices for High-Performing Nonprofit Boards. During this webinar you’ll learn:

• What a Nonprofit Board is and Why they Exist
• The 3 Core Duties of a Board
• The Roles and Responsibilities of Board Directors
• What High-performing Boards Do that Makes Them Different
• How to Run Highly Effective Board Meetings that Don’t Waste Time
• And Much More.

This training will be recorded and made available, for a limited time, to those who aren’t able to attend.

Later, it will be available for purchase. But right now, I want to make it available at no cost. Don’t miss this opportunity – register here.

If you serve on a board with someone or are hoping to recruit someone to your board, send them this link to make sure they sign up as well.

More Opportunities

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Free Resource: How To Accomplish More Without Doing More is a workbook I created to walk leaders through a process of helping you own your calendar, liberate your time and still get more done. Download it for free!

Executive and Leadership Coaching: Do you feel overwhelmed? Are you not getting the results you expect from the effort you are putting in? Do you find yourself facing similar challenges time and time again? Would you like to change specific ways of relating or reacting? If you would like to experience predictable, measurable growth, contact me.

Profitable Exit Strategy Workshop: Are you a business owner or partner? Are you over 55? Are you starting to think about exiting your business or active management in the next 3-5 years?

• Are you curious about what your business might be worth?
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If so, contact me now.