“I think an effective leader has to take risks, and if you’re really taking risks in meaningful ways, you are going to make mistakes. The key to success is to recognize them as mistakes, learn from them, and don’t repeat them.” Deborah Stebbins, former CEO of Seton Medical Center 

It’s very unlikely that any of us who’ve made the inevitable mistakes in our business lives received a pat on the back and encouragement to learn from them and move on. For most of us, mistakes are embarrassing. 

When we make mistakes we can’t help feeling that we’ve fallen short of our own and others’ expectations of perfection, and the negative reactions of our colleagues and co-workers reinforce those feelings. And yet, most of the successful people I’ve interviewed have learned to take a different approach to mistakes. Here’s how:  

1. They know they’re going to make mistakes, so they don’t fear them.
2. They realize it’s better to take action and risk making a mistake than to “play it safe.”
3. Successful people don’t take mistakes lightly. They don’t ignore them or hope that they will miraculously disappear.
4. They understand that mistakes can call attention to issues and teach lessons that might not otherwise surface. They ask themselves, “What can I learn from this so I can do better in the future and become more competitive and more valuable?”
5. Successful people don’t want to make mistakes, but they are willing to risk them because they know mistakes are part of achieving success.
6. They are generous in their thoughts about their own and others’ mistakes.

What Deborah Stebbins says— “I think an effective leader has to take risks, and if you’re really taking risks in meaningful ways, you are going to make mistakes. The key to success is to recognize them as mistakes, learn from them and don’t repeat them.”—holds true of successful people in their personal lives as well. 

Consider the things you have learned “the hard way.” Yes, they may have been painful at the time, but when you look back on them you learned something. It would be nice if we could learn all we need to know the easy way, but we know that’s impossible. Mistakes are inevitable, but they may be the road signs that lead to our personal growth and for becoming more understanding of others’ mistakes. Such thinking about mistakes makes life easier and more enjoyable.