According to the Scottish author and creator of Peter Pan,
"We are all failures - at least the best of us are." ~ J.M. Barrie
I have failed numerous times in anything from taking a test in school to painting a wall. In fact, I would wager to say that I fail every single day. I also fail as a leader, but it is important to understand the concept of leadership itself and at what makes someone a good leader, especially since there are obviously some that are good and some that are bad all around us. This is why developing a leadership style as well as unique techniques are important when "observing how others perform this all-important function in any organization." I will call my examples within my blog attempts to reinforce the necessary ingredients or the "secret sauce" of good communications and leadership practices (Jurkowsky, 2020, p. vi)
Recently, I had my son and daughter-in-law over to watch the Ohio State football game. They were sweet and brought one of my favorite dinners - enchiladas. Because it had been a busy day for me at a conference, and I had just gotten home, I quickly busied myself picking up, cleaning off the counters, letting out and feeding the dogs, and prepped the living room for some college football. I was ready - or so I thought because when they arrived, I noticed that my son was a little apprehensive about the dogs being out...oh no, I had forgotten that his wife is very allergic to dogs! Once I figured out my blunder, I immediately put the dogs back in their crates and apologized. I felt bad that I had forgotten about her allergies, especially since her constant sneezing culminated in her having to call her mom to pick her up early. But Nathan and I could at least move on again to watching the game, right?
What I also didn't realize at the time was that with my daughter-in-law being gone, I would have my son's undivided attention. Usually, I would be ecstatic about this; however, I made another blunder when I congratulated him for doing so well in his college classes when I referenced how he was way smarter than me. Thinking I was complementing Nathan on his amazing accomplishments in his master, he instead got defensive and taught me a valuable lesson that night. He said that I devalued his accomplishments when I made the comparison of him to me. I had never heard anyone make this complaint before, and it really caught me off guard, so I had to fight to keep the tears from coming. Moreover, harder yet was hearing my son report how I have been doing this throughout his upbringing, which obviously hit me even harder. I knew then that my son was a leader and that even though there was a problem, he was not going to hide it. When he stepped up to the plate and confessed how I had hurt him, he was really conveying, "Mom, we need to fix this."
While I was a little hurt that our evening was focused on my failures rather than the football game, I have since admitted to him how grateful I am for being up front and honest with me about this issue. You see, the beauty of failure is that it makes you stronger at what you do, especially in leadership. When you are transparent about your failures, people will be drawn to how genuine you are. They will also see your passions shine through when you share your knowledge with the world. In fact, the starting point of great success and achievement can come right after failure. As a good leader, I knew that I needed to see my problem (and so did my son) in order to be engaged and successful in overcoming it. Also beautiful was witnessing how Nathan acted with integrity and didn't lie - the mark of a great leader (Jurkowsky, 2020, p. 40).
Click below to learn how you can stop wasting time, living every second as if it's your last. Remember that speaking into existence and believing in yourself can change your life - failures and all.
References:
- Jurkowsky, T. (2020). The secret sauce for organizational success: communications and leadership on the same page. Air University Press. https://catalog.libraries.wright.edu:443/record=b4441131~S7
- Motiversity Motivation Hub. (2021, June 7). Dream big - powerful motivational speech 2021. YouTube. https://youtu.be/y3tv1-s7g-4?si=8XuKCf-lcUR0i22C
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