A simple way to broaden your leadership impact is to give your team the opportunity to be wrong. The old mantra “you learn from your mistakes” can be taken to an extreme of course — we should probably learn far more from our successes. But being wrong about something and having it blow up in our face is a huge growth opportunity. And we need to give our team the opportunity to make those mistakes.
A few years ago I was enjoying a glass of wine (and probably a cigar) with a leader who had built a successful organization. He was at the point in his career when he needed to think about who should succeed him. A lot of younger leaders were being given more responsibility, and they were making decisions that (at least in the eyes of my friend) seemed headed for catastrophe. The challenge he faced was navigating the waters between sharing leadership and avoiding a possible train wreck.
We talked a little about the worst case scenarios, and while they certainly were bad they also seemed unlikely. It felt more like my friend was reluctant to let go of leadership than he was realistic about the risks involved. I gently pointed this out to him — okay, so maybe not so gently; I called him on it. He grudgingly admitted I was probably right.
“Look,” I said to him, “you have to give your team the opportunity to be wrong. It’s not a risk to be avoided, it is an opportunity to find out who on your team has the skills to lead.”
We sat in silence for a few minutes as he sipped his wine (Tofanelli Zinfandel as I recall) and thought about my words. Eventually he nodded and said, “You’re right. I’ve built a foundation for them, but they have to make their own mistakes.”
“And celebrate their successes,” I quickly added. He smiled and agreed.