Go Ahead & Admit It, They Already Know Anyway…

Originally shared in A Daily Dose Of Leadership on June 26, 2020.

While taking a course on direct-response marketing for small businesses with one of my mentors a few years ago, I remember being initially puzzled when he emphasized that it’s far more important to handle any slip-up appropriately than to act like they never happen. Christian went on to say, “Everyone makes mistakes. It just happens. What separates a best-in-class business from its mediocre (at best) counterparts is all in how they accept responsibility for mistakes and do everything in their power to make things right.”

As I thought more about that statement, it reminded me of the story John Maxwell shared in Leadership Gold about the CEO who pulled him aside at a break during a session he was doing for the company’s top executives. John had made a statement in the first session suggesting that each of them should be open about their weaknesses. The CEO took issue with that, telling John how important it was that he maintain a strong image with all of his people. John just laughed and explained to the CEO that he had misunderstood the point. John told him, “Your people are already well aware of your weaknesses. Admitting those weaknesses lets your team know that you’re aware of them too…”

As we’ve looked at how critical trust is for building and sustaining A Cycle for Success over the last several blogs, each of these illustrations serve to emphasize the impact taking responsibility for our own mistakes and being open about the areas we need support can have on the culture of the teams we lead.

For the better part of this year, Cindy and I have been attempting to work through some significant issues with a local company that we’ve always had a fair amount of respect for. In early January, one of their employees was blatantly dishonest with us about a sensitive issue. I addressed that dishonesty with their direct supervisor, which ended up leading to several other issues of dishonesty. By the middle of February, we took our concerns to the organization’s CEO and the brand new department head responsible for the area of the business where the issues were occurring. There was plenty of lip service in that initial meeting but we soon realized that there was no intention of providing any follow through whatsoever. And it’s progressed to the point where these same two individuals won’t even respond to emails addressing continuing concerns, and we’re still paying this company a substantial amount of money for just a few more weeks…

So here’s how trust, the idea that Connecting is ALL About Others, and admitting our wrongs because our team already knows, all ties together…

We’ve known that CEO from a distance for nearly twenty years. They have a prominent name in the community. We’ve also known them on a somewhat personal level for about a decade. Since late 2017, we’ve (as a family) paid the organization well over $300,000. And everyone driving by views this organization as top notch. But when someone in a leadership role, and I’m very intentionally not referring to this CEO as a leader, is more interested in maintaining a perception of perfection than they are in taking responsibility when there are errors – and there will always be errors – the team around them pick up on this immediately and the lack of integrity that CEO chose to endorse by opting not to address and correct spreads through all levels of the organization faster than COVID in a nursing home.

Trust is an incredibly hard foundation to build but a very easy one to destroy. Woody Harrelson made a completely inappropriate, but equally accurate, reference to this in the 1999 movie, Play It to the Bone, in saying something about building 1,000 bridges. (no chance I’m putting the complete quote here though…) Whether it’s our direct decision to violate someone’s trust, or a passive decision we make to overlook it when someone on our team does, it will ALWAYS leave a mark on our organization’s culture – because everyone on our team will see that and follow our lead – and it will definitely impact how the people we serve view us from that point forward.

Bottom line: There’s no lasting success without it…