Why is it so hard to admit that we’ve made a mistake? None of us is perfect. We all know that. There should be no shame in making the occasional mistake, but boy, do we hate to admit them. Well, I know I do. How about you?

So, I have to confess that I made a mistake, actually two, on my article postscript from two weeks ago.

The first mistake was putting the postscript in the article in the first place. It was unnecessary and unkind, not the kind of behavior that I expect from myself. I could give you a million excuses, but I won’t. I’ll just say I’m sorry I added it.

The second mistake was in the content of the postscript. Ms. May does offer an electronic version of Regenerative Purpose – two, in fact. She offers both PDF and Kindle on her website. I looked on Amazon and only saw the paperback there. My fault for not thoroughly checking. I won’t do that again. Promise.

In the meantime, I apologize to you and Ms. May for my mistakes. I’m truly sorry.

Deep breath.

Was that so hard? Well, it kinda was. But it also feels good to do the right thing, to own up to the mistakes. Integrity is an extremely important virtue to me. I always feel good when staying true to that, even when it’s not pleasant.

But why is it so hard? Why do we have this expectation of perfection from ourselves, others, and especially leaders?

Okay, yes, leaders have a responsibility to try not to make mistakes, to be thorough and conscientious, but there are always times when we miss something, when we misstate something, when we do something that we think better of after that fact. It’s called being human.

It’s how we handle our mistakes that shows true leadership and integrity.

We have choices when we make mistakes. We can tough it out, pretend that we didn’t make the mistake, hope no one notices, and move on. That works sometimes, but more often than not, it catches up with you somehow. And not only does it catch up with you, but you lose more credibility when it does.

When I was in corporate, one of the primary rules I had for my team was “if you make a mistake, please tell me before I hear it from someone else.” Why? So, I could HELP. I’d rather know in advance, be prepared, and be able to help than to have to say, “Hmmm, let me check into that.”

When we make mistakes and acknowledge them, we have the opportunity to correct the mistakes, make amends (or at least apologize), and to LEARN from the mistake.

After all, it’s not making the mistake that’s so much the problem. The real problem is to make the same mistake twice. 😊

Wishing you a mistake-free day … but if not, own it.