Leadership Session #3 - Your last mistake is your best teacher

Do you remember a day when everything you did or saw was perfect? Everything in its place, no errors, no mistakes?  Is that a murmured "No" I hear? Damn right!  Its human to err..the Japanese call it Wabi Sabi - The Art of Imperfection..... here is a little story.   A gardener was asked to get a garden ready for guests who were coming to see a house.  He toiled and picked and swept and plucked; when everything was perfect, he shook the cherry blossom tree just a bit to have scattered flowers on the path....

I really got all heated up when my team made mistakes: harsh, unforgiving, shaking my head and muttering under my breath!  But realisation hit me every time I made mistakes and faced the same abhorring treatment from my boss.  I understood that this experience of making mistakes is creating an awareness in me - and when faced making the same error again, my brain triggered off and that told me something isn't quite right.   That's when I knew, here is the learning...this is how it should be done.  Of course one has to be brave enough to share the mistake and learning both.  That's leadership.  And yes it requires courage to admit your mistake....but then lighten up, talk of Wabi Sabi!

Mistakes are definitely stepping stones to Learning and Success.  Treat it as such, and your team will admit their mistakes quickly instead of camouflaging it until it may become a huge unsolvable problem. Discuss mistakes in your meetings and get everyone to contribute what they have learnt from them. Make "discussing mistakes" a permanent point in your monthly meeting agenda and make it mandatory for each one to present at least one.  This will encourage introspection and analysis of what is done - right and wrong.  This will bring forth new learning and innovative solutions. This will bring comfort and ease with each team member - open, unafraid and seeking to learn more. 

This will make you like yourself better and you will look for more ways to become a true Leader.

 And this one is just for fun!

Leadership Session #1 Give up on Giving up - Inspired Tale

We all know that Hanuman found Sita in Lanka. Here is a story that tells us the events that led him to finding Sita. Hanuman’s first search for Sita ends in failure. The Sanskrit epic depicts him in a crestfallen mood on the island, reflecting on what to do next. Hanuman, disheartened by failure is now standing on the shore of the ocean and reasons that perhaps it is best for him to commit suicide since he cannot fulfil his promise to Rama.

While he was contemplating suicide, his attention was diverted by the activity of a small bird, which seemed to dive from the sky, collect water of the ocean in her beak and fly away. The frequent repetition of this act by the little bird aroused his curiosity and he asked the bird what it was up to. The bird replied: My nest has fallen into the ocean and I am trying to dry up the ocean to recover it. Hanuman was taken aback by the resolve of the little bird and asked, full of surprise, how she hoped to empty the ocean to recover her nest. Thereupon the bird replied:
Days and nights are long; My beak is strong as iron. Indefatigability is the root of success. Why will the ocean not dry up?

Hanuman was astounded by the determination of the little bird and thought to himself if this little bird can display such courage and determination then surely, I should not give up on my goal and at least make one more attempt to find Sita. 

Hanuman did, indeed, succeed in his mission the second time. The little verse uttered by the little bird in the epic became a famous saying and its message – Give up giving up – has perhaps inspired many more, just as it inspired Hanuman.