Bull-Headed

Tell me about one big mistake you made early on as a new leader of an organization. And how did you deal with it?

I think one of the biggest mistakes that I probably made -- not probably -- I made.

Expose your vulnerability.

You know, there were times where I would get so anxious about wanting to be right. And I actually, in this moment was not right. I was doing something actually around a budget and I could have sworn that I had all of my information and numbers all correct. And I wasn't right. And it was it was a pretty significant mistake. I actually was at AT&T at that point of my career. And what I feel like my mistake was, was that I was too busy trying to defend why it happened versus acknowledge that I made a mistake and taking ownership of that mistake so that I could have created more space to listen and learn from the mistake.

And so for me, it was almost like, you know, I'm a Taurus and, you know, if you subscribe to that stuff. I am bull-headed -- I am very much so. And so, you know, I just could not listen. I could not hear what my supervisors were trying to tell me because I was so in the mode of trying to defend why, even though I was wrong, why my wrong was still kind of right.

Actually, that's a great lesson to pass on. I have been guilty of that mistake many times. Finally, I learned. Thank goodness.