Treasure Boxes of Mistakes

In the fifth of a six-part series of blogs about the growth of The Lit­tle Pota­to Com­pa­ny (LPC), and the lead­er­ship CEO/­co-founder Angela San­ti­a­go, we talk about how she val­ues mak­ing mis­takes and rel­ish­es not know­ing everything.

News flash: lead­ers don’t have all the answers.

But mature lead­ers know they don’t, and are will­ing to talk about it. They see mis­takes as rich oppor­tu­ni­ties to grow and improve.

For Angela, those abil­i­ties are worn like a badge of honour.

She refers to the lessons learned from mis­takes as jew­els inside ​‘trea­sure box­es’ filled with wis­dom you can car­ry with you on your jour­ney. In this clip, Angela dis­cuss­es how mis­takes are the build­ing blocks that pre­pare you for the next challenge.

[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1tnJuVU6YvM&width=400&height=225&centervid=1&modestbranding=1[/embedyt]

“Learn­ing is all about extract­ing and har­vest­ing the lessons – good or bad.

We often blow by them in life. We can’t talk about it…it was embar­rass­ing or too painful. But…if you pause for a moment and open them up…

there are pieces of wis­dom inside.”

Mis­takes Make Bet­ter Leaders

Tough, con­struc­tive feed­back is also crit­i­cal to mature and grow, as a leader. (Chap­ter 9, Your Oxy­gen Mask First)). While we all appre­ci­ate praise, this is the fuel we need to get stronger and grow.

Hav­ing the humil­i­ty to dis­cuss your mis­takes and share the lessons with oth­ers sets a pos­i­tive exam­ple for your team — and your fam­i­ly. Lis­ten as Angela and I dis­cuss how learn­ing from oth­ers’ expe­ri­ences helps us become bet­ter leaders.

[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fjn0_zxhVPE&width=400&height=225&centervid=1&modestbranding=1[/embedyt]

Now that Angela’s kids are in their 20s, she says that shar­ing her expe­ri­ences is a much more effec­tive way of par­ent­ing. They don’t want to be told what to do, but they do want to hear about – and can learn from – your expe­ri­ences. I think up-and-com­ing lead­ers are the same.

A Sign of Maturity

Think back to when you were 20 years old: you were like­ly con­fi­dent and ter­ri­fied at the same time and would nev­er admit you didn’t know some­thing or had made a mistake.

Over time, you real­ize every­one is just try­ing to fig­ure it out and do their best, includ­ing you.

In fact, know­ing that you don’t have all the answers and being will­ing to talk about the mis­takes you make, actu­al­ly gives you more cred­i­bil­i­ty. In this clip we talk about the jour­ney to lead­er­ship maturity.

[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0tPEOvjCNNI&width=400&height=225&centervid=1&modestbranding=1[/embedyt]

For more, here are links to our recent LPC Case Study and watch the full inter­view with Angela below.

[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bvkrdf8rcSk&width=400&height=225&centervid=1&modestbranding=1[/embedyt]

Oth­er Blogs

• Embrac­ing Painful Mis­takes: The Unfore­seen Path to Success
• Com­mon Mis­takes Lead­ers Make
• 6 BHAG Mis­takes to Avoid

Old­er Podcasts

• 5 Expen­sive Hir­ing Mis­takes to Avoid
• 7 Mis­takes Lead­ers Make at Annu­al Strat­e­gy Meetings