DailyPost 2436
IF YOU CANNOT IDENTIFY YOUR MISTAKES…
The best thing is not to commit mistakes. Bismarck said the wise man learns from the mistakes of others. If you cannot identify your mistakes, you are doomed, given the world’s experience, it can also be treated as truism. The truism applies to individuals, institutions, organizations, associations, groups, communities, states and nations in equal measure. If mistakes cannot even be identified, where is the question of not repeating it. If it is not taken as symptomatic of necessary correctional journey, how can the onward growth and maturity journey of any organization take place.
The mistake if not seen at the time of vision stage, goes through the planning stage, henceforth into execution, delivering unwarranted results, and negative / detrimental impact, necessarily. If in such a situation the warning bells don’t strike loud, in your professional, personal and social grey matter, there is an issue. Then we come to the core question, of identifying a behavioral and professional trait that we develop in our concerned upbringing? Or mistake is treated as an ego issue to get into a defensive or an offensive mode, as the case may be, but in no case to accept it.
It clearly means that you don’t have a progressive mindset and you don’t carry the welfare of the institution / organization deep down your heart, despite open lip service to the contrary and chest beating when caught. If it is by ignorance, it might still be condoned, but more often than it is deliberate. Why do we call it deliberate, because same or similar mistakes are repeated, with similar drama as well? In personal life they say; to err is human, to forgive divine. When you carry on your shoulders, the weight and responsibility of institutions, organizations, state or nation, if a mistake is made, it has to be necessarily corrected, in the larger interest of the organization.
Organizations have lot of inbuilt mechanisms and if those are optimally and proactively put into operation, wrong decision is not taken and consequently the mistake is not put into action. The person with the right and demonstrated capability of running and putting organizations on growth track develops an innate sense and acumen, to sense when things go wrong. To identify the mistake in the early stages itself, is a core trait, a singularly critical trait for people, heading organizations; the leaders in whatever field. They have the humility to accept it and do the course correction. They also have the capability and expertise to set right, whatever might be the nature of mistake/s or crisis. Not listening to the sentinels, critics, well-wishers, well-meaning media and/or auditors, does not augur well for the leader or the organization. It can only be termed then as vested interest or hidden agenda for an ulterior motive.
IF YOU CANNOT IDENTIFY YOUR MISTAKES, YOU DON’T DESERVE TO LEAD, IT CAN BE SUICIDAL.
Sanjay Sahay