Leadership Trait Learning From Mistakes: Why and How to Build It

Don’t make the same mistakes again once you’ve learned from them. An old saying says that when you make a mistake repeatedly, it’s no longer a mistake but a choice.

A big part of being a good leader is being willing to take risks, try new things, and take big chances to see what’s possible. It implies making mistakes and learning from these mistakes.

What does learning from mistakes in leadership mean?

Learning from mistakes is to think of your mistakes as a chance to learn and grow. Review what went wrong to figure out what you did wrong and learn from it.

Find the skills, knowledge, tools, or resources that will keep you from making the same mistake again. Look at how you’re doing.

Famous leaders who learned from their mistakes

Henry Ford

Failure didn’t stop Henry Ford from coming up with new ideas. Instead, it pushed him to work on his vision for a technology that would change the world.

John F. Kennedy

JFK made many mistakes, but he learned from them, which is why he is known as one of the most famous U.S. presidents. Kennedy made three mistakes when he backed the invasion of the Cuban Missile Crisis, the war, and the Bay of Pigs in Vietnam getting worse.

Julius Caesar

Julius Caesar made mistakes and learned from them. As a result, he took on the powers of several magistrates without taking on the jobs themselves. So, Caesar could run the government without getting in the way of the nobles’ careers.

Thomas Edison

Learning from his mistakes, Thomas Edison resumed work instead. He aspired to solve challenges and learned from both his accomplishments and mistakes. Edison developed his innovation factory in New Jersey to tackle issues.

Steve Jobs

Steve Jobs didn’t let Apple’s failure define him. He learned from his mistakes, started new enterprises, and finally returned to Apple. Failure motivated him to keep going.

The importance of learning from mistakes as a leader

When we make mistakes, it gives us a chance to show how good a leader we are. Instead of hiding our mistakes, we should use them to show how good a leader we are and what kind of person we are. Here are a few examples of how we can learn from our mistakes.

It inspires creativity

Mistakes make us look for other options. They force us to look at a problem from a different angle and develop new ways to solve it. Mistakes show us what doesn’t work and push us to think and act in new ways.

Creativity and innovation are ways of thinking in which mistakes are seen as opportunities to learn. This change in how you think can give you the energy to find something new and better.

Mistakes re-energize us

It’s paradoxical. What puts us down helps us win. Yes, with grit. We haven’t been healthy, and it’s cost us. It’s easy to grow comfortable and check out when we’re in a habit. We may have the discipline to continue good activities, yet we may get off track.

Major obstacles alter that. We’re off autopilot. We must reconsider. Reinvesting helps us be solution-oriented.

If we suffer a panic attack because our stress levels are too high, if we fall off the treadmill because we’re overtired, or if our waistline expands because we’re attempting to eat as we did a decade ago, we’ll need to become creative and commit.

It helps us be more courageous

It takes courage to face the fear that mistakes can cause and keep going forward despite the setbacks. It takes courage to admit that we didn’t do it right the first time and want to try again with a different approach.

Many people have trouble figuring out how to be emotionally and mentally strong. Mistakes give us chances to show how brave we are, and being brave is a sign of being a leader.

Mistakes shift us from improvement to growth

Mistakes shift our notion of success from perfecting a talent to actualization and satisfaction. To move forward, we examine errors against our life goals. This puts things in proper perspective (i.e., not a big deal in the grand scheme).

We relinquish the defeat to reaffirm the goal and keep on. A situational, constrained notion of success is bench pressing a certain amount. A performance objective focuses on talent, not life.

Tips to learn from mistakes

One way to tell if someone is a good leader is how they deal with mistakes. Who can get past problems and setbacks and who can’t is shown by how well they deal with problems.

The best leaders know how to fix problems and move on. The following is a guide for gaining wisdom from past mistakes.

Analyze your mistakes

Think about what went wrong and how you fixed it. Write down what you did well and what you could have done better.

When you think about and understand your mistake, you can figure out what you need to do differently to ensure it doesn’t happen again. It can also help you find ways to fix mistakes you make in the future.

For instance, if you forget to send an important email, you could figure out that you forgot because you didn’t put it on your list of things to do. Then you could write down everything you had to do in your planner.

Own up to your mistakes

If you make a mistake, try to own up to it as soon as you can and, if you need to, say you’re sorry. Making an effort to say you’re sorry for a mistake can show that you care about the people you might have hurt.

You can also show that you regret your mistake, are willing to take responsibility for it, and are using it as a chance to get better by saying you’re sorry.

Get feedback

You might also find it helpful to ask people around you what they think, like your boss or coworkers. Helpful criticism can help you figure out what you can do to improve your job. You can also ask mentors how to fix the mistakes you’ve made.

For example, if you make a mistake that you don’t know how to fix, you can talk to a mentor who used to do your job and ask them how they handled different situations. This can teach you important things about your job and how to handle mistakes and hard situations.

Think about how far you’ve come

Thinking about how you’ve grown can also help you see mistakes as chances to learn and grow. You can think about how you’ve used what you’ve learned in your life, such as how well you’ve stuck to habits.

You can also think about the mistakes you keep making to figure out where you still need to get better. Think about writing in a journal or talking to someone you trust about how you feel.

Keep an open mind to learning

Having a learning mindset means that you think you are always learning. Having a learning mindset can help you see your mistakes not as failures but as lessons and chances to grow.

Instead of focusing on your mistakes, think of them as learning opportunities that have helped you grow. This can help you keep getting better and better over time.

Share what you have learned

You could also tell other people in similar positions what you've learned so they can avoid making the same mistakes. This can help you avoid making the same mistake over and over at work, and it can also help you get along with your coworkers and subordinates.

Teaching others what you’ve learned can also help you remember what you’ve learned.

For example, if you made a mistake calculating a number on a financial statement, you could show your coworkers in the same job where you went wrong and how they can avoid it. This can also make the workplace run more smoothly and get more done.

Final verdict

Mistakes can happen at work, but they can also be a good way to learn and grow. Everyone makes mistakes, like forgetting to send an email or missing a deadline. You can turn a mistake into a good thing by using it as a chance to learn and get better at your job by not making the same mistakes again.

Showing that you’ve learned from your mistakes can make your employees more likely to trust you and show that you’re willing to work on yourself. Also, learning from your mistakes and seeing them as good things can boost your confidence and get rid of your fear of failing.


About the Author
Hi there, I'm James, founder of Melbado. I have over 20 years of experience as a leader and entrepreneur. Recently, I turned to leadership coaching and writing to pass on my knowledge to the next generation. If you have any questions or comments, please contact me via our contact page.

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