Helping leaders motivate their people to a higher level of performance through strong human relations, team building, and Gola jiving. This is the seven Minute Leadership Podcast with your host Paul Fellooledo.
Hello everyone, and welcome to the seven Minute Leadership Podcast. It's episode four thirty and let's talk about something. Every leader, no matter how experienced, eventually faces a moment where you realize you got it wrong. You made the wrong call, handled it the wrong way, said the wrong thing. Whatever it was, it wasn't your best leadership move. But here's the good news. There is a way to hit undo and still walk away with your credibility intact, maybe even stronger.
Leadership isn't about being perfect, it's about being responsible, and sometimes the most powerful thing you can do as a leader is to own your mistake, correct it, and keep moving forward with honesty, humility, and clarity. So let's walk through how to do exactly that. Step one, Spot the mistake quickly and don't hide from it. Every second you spend trying to protect your ego as a second, your team loses respect for you. The faster you can recognize
and admit the mistake. The better leaders who delay action, double down, or hope. No one notices. They don't just lose trust, they lose momentum. And here's the rule. If you know what was wrong, fix it fast. Don't wait for someone else to bring it up. Beat them to it. Step two, be honest with yourself and with your team. There's no leadership win in pretending. If you made a bad call, say it own the out come. Say I
made the wrong decision on that simple direct clear. You don't need a ted talk, you don't need an excuse. You just need honesty. Your team doesn't expect you to be flawless, they expect you to be real. Step three, use humility, not drama. This isn't the time for over apologizing or turning the situation into a pity party. You're not trying to earn sympathy. You're showing accountability. Say what went wrong, why it matters, and how you're going to correct it. A calm, humble tone does more than a
dozen mia kulpas you're a leader, not a martyr. Here's a good phrase to remember. Here's what I intended, Here's where I missed the mark. Here's how I plan to fix it. That's humility paired with action and that's leadership. Step four commune undicate the fix with total clarity. Now comes the undue part, the actual reversal of the decision or behavior. This is where a lot of leaders fumble. Again. You can't be vague here. If you're rolling something back,
tell your team exactly what's changing and why. Be clear, be confident, and let them know. This isn't flip flopping. This is course correcting. There's a difference between being indecisive and being wise enough to adjust. Step five. Extract a lesson publicly. This is a major trust builder. Don't just fix it, teach from it. Say what you learned and how you'll handle similar decisions differently next time. This turns your mistake into a leadership moment, not just for you,
but for your entire team. They're watching how you handle your own stumbles and how you recover. Might just give them permission to handle their own right way. You're not just undoing a bad move. You're modeling resilience and responsibility. Step six, Move on and don't let it define you. After you've addressed it, fixed it, and learn from it, move forward. Don't keep apologizing, don't keep circling back. That's not leadership that's insecurity. Let your actions going forward speak
louder than the mistake behind you. You've shown you're human, you've shown you're honest. You've shown you're willing to fix what's broken. That's more valuable to your team than pretending you never screwed up. So the best leaders don't pretend to be perfect. They just fix things faster and more cleanly than everyone else. So the next time you make a leadership move that falls flat, don't panic. Just hit the mental undoe button. Own it, fix it, communicate clearly,
learn the lesson, and move on. You don't need perfection to be a respected leader. You need accountability, humility, and a willingness to do the right thing, even when it means admitting you got it wrong. This has been the seven minute Leadership Podcast, and I thank you for listening.
For more, Paul Fell of Alito Podcasts, visit paulfellowalito dot com