The Manager - 117 - Making mistakes

THE MANAGER - BY ROB LAMBERT

Hi.
 
Hope you are safe and well. It’s been hectic here at Lambert HQ. I’ve been a little slack with my video production as I’m working with a client, studying for a diploma in HR and frankly, personal life has been traumatic these last few weeks.

But things are starting to look up a little. And Christmas is just around the corner.
 
I’ve been working on a Zine (homemade magazine) for charity this last few weeks and have to say it’s been harder than I expected. I’ve made a lot of mistakes.
 
But mistakes are part of the learning.
 
I got the paging wrong which meant it didn’t flow and I had to redo it. I printed photos too big, too small, with poor colouring and had to reprint many of them. I got most of the text wrong at some point and stuck many things in the wrong place.
 
But these mistakes are part of the process. It means I’m doing something new. It means I’m taking on something challenging. It means I’m pushing my boundaries of knowledge and experience.
 
Mistakes are an opportunity to make myself better.
 
And the same is true in work. Mistakes are not only a way to make yourself better, but also the business.
 
As Paul Hawken said in his wonderful book, Growing A Business, a mistake is nothing more than the gap between what happened and what you expected to happen. In the gap are lessons for us.
 
Of course, some mistakes are more costly than others, so we should be careful and guard against making life and career altering mistakes. If you’re a manager you should ensure people in your team aren’t taking on something so new, so vast and so fraught with negative outcomes, that failure could end many careers. After all, all mistakes in your team ultimately belong to you.
 
But we should not shy away from mistakes. Mistakes are a sign we are growing as people. Mistakes show that we are trying new things in business.
 
Mistakes should be embraced, reflected upon and learned from. Try not to harbour negative thinking about mistakes or wish things turned out to be different. It is done, it’s in the past, there is nothing we can do about the mistake itself - it's happened. All we can do is make amends for it, own it and learn from it.
 
Without the learning we run the risk of making the same mistakes again.
 
Mistakes will always happen. They are a way to make you and the business better.
 
With that, I’m going to get back to sticking things on pieces of paper ready for the printers. Have a cracking day.
 
And thank you to all who have bought my latest book and the online course. It is greatly appreciated.
 
Until next time.
 
Rob..
 

Published to YouTube this week

Forget Time Management - Energy and Attention is where it's at
 

FOOD FOR YOUR MANAGEMENT BRAIN

1. There is no finish line. Interesting, short article about the creative process being non-linear - like a loop. Austin Kleon also references a race where there is no finish line, you just run the loop until everyone else drops out. This is like business, and I talk about this in my new book, in that there are no destinations, no end point, no place we arrive and say "finished". There is always more. A loop. It's why we must live in the now. Like the runners in this race "just do the next loop". Then the next. Then the next. - https://austinkleon.com/2020/12/01/there-is-no-finish-line/

2. Seth is on point as usual. Most leaders and managers are too far removed from the customer experience to respond quickly enough. - https://seths.blog/2020/12/insulation-from-the-user-experience/

3. How can you rebuild trust with someone you feel is not telling you the truth. Interesting article. - https://lattice.com/library/like-a-boss-how-can-i-rebuild-trust-with-an-employee-who-i-feel-isnt-telling-me-the-truth

4. Want to know what the office of 2020 will look like? Apparently like this. I for one am looking forward to seeing people and interacting with people. This web call stuff feels like a poor substitute for human interaction. - https://www.fastcompany.com/90575940/this-is-what-the-office-will-look-like-in-2022

5. Can we create a future where people are no longer a slave to the wage. - https://nireyal.medium.com/are-you-a-wage-slave-61ae33797427

6. Why facts alone don't change minds. It's why I teach managers and leaders how to communicate effectively - and this includes stories, being enthusiastic and utilising shared and common language to resonate more with their audience. - https://getpocket.com/explore/item/this-article-won-t-change-your-mind?

7. People don't hate change, they hate poor managed change. I kind of agree - of course, all change should be well managed, but I would also state: "People don't hate change, if they themselves don't have to change". Change is easy if we don't have to do anything. - https://lattice.com/library/resourceful-people-dont-hate-change-people-hate-poorly-managed-change

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Thanks
Rob..