Accepting And Fixing Our Flaws As Leaders

We all have flaws, myself included.

We all also HATE to admit that we are wrong!

I know that I definitely do!

We also have a tendency to believe that everything we do is exceptional.

Sometimes it is, at least to an extent.

However, we also need to be wary of our human-ness.

Sometimes things may be exceptional, but that doesn't mean we can't improve.

The Background Info

I was recently working on a Lesson, and felt that I did an exceptional job!

I was really proud of my work!

I also had someone who was looking over my Lesson, someone whose ideas around the topic I truly trust.

They felt my work had a lot of amazing potential... but was lacking.

My initial reaction was what most peoples' are when they hear that their ideas may be flawed.

What?!?!

No way!

This thing is great!

You have no idea what you're saying!

Immediately my mind wanted to block out what it saw as criticism.

However, I am only TOO well-studied in my own propensity to failure.

Trust me - I fail on a DAILY basis, and there are plenty of people I have who aren't afraid to let me know when I drop the ball (in a loving way, of course).

So instead of pushing away the ideas and suggestions, I did a couple of things.

My Path To Improving My Flaws

First

I needed to remind myself of who was looking over my Lesson, and WHY they were doing it in the first place.

They were there to help me, their goal was to see me at my best.

They had no desire to put me down, only for me to rise.

Their suggestions were designed to make me better.

Second

I needed to distance myself from my work.

Often, we are too close to our work to understand it subjectively.

When we are too close, we fail to see any glaring issues that might exist - often, we even fail to see the minor adjustments that would help too.

To combat this, you have to pull your mind away from the subject at hand and clear it of any preconceived notions you have.

Some people do this through various forms of meditation.

Others do it by simply focusing their mind on something else (forcing things to go into the unconscious super-computer mind).

The method is less important than making sure we detach ourselves from how close we are to our work.

Third

I went back to what was said about my work with a clear head.

I really took in the words of what I could improve on.

There were many "individual" suggestions, but I was mainly focusing on the overall message of what was being said.

What was the "Big" thing I could work on improving?

Fourth

I had to take that lesson in.

Was the message true of myself?

Where did it apply in my life overall?

Did it only apply in "this" situation, or was it more glaring in multiple aspects of my life?

The more I thought about what was being said, the more I realized that there was a Flaw in my own personal thinking!

A Flaw that could really help ALL of my work improve if I really took it in and understood it better.

Fifth

I went back to the Lesson that I was creating.

I had a new understanding of what could be missing in the Lesson, and I went over it all with completely fresh eyes.

As I looked, I saw the Flaw.

It was definitely there, I had a Flaw that when fixed could dramatically improve my Lesson!

Sixth

I went about improving myself.

Now that I see what I need to work on, I am making efforts to become better at it all.

It started in that Lesson, and it will continue to be developed in all of my work (including this article - if you're crafty you might be able to figure out how my work has changed).

The Final Takeaway

We are all Flawed, the sooner we accept that the faster we can dramatically improve our work and our lives.

If our goal is to become Legendary Leaders, then we want to understand the Flaws that exist as quickly as possible and work on them.

Think about your life over the past days, weeks, months, or years.

Has anyone told you about a Flaw that you may have?

Did you shut their ideas and suggestions out immediately?

If so, I want you to go back to what they said.

Go through the steps above.

See if, perhaps, there is something you missed that would improve your Leadership dramatically if you took it in.

If you do this and don't find "anything", think about it more deeply because it means you are missing something HUGE.

None of us are perfect, but we can always improve, and we ALL have room to grow better.

Go seek out where you can improve, and start making those changes now!