Good leaders and bad leaders have many differences. Effective leaders tend to do things well, while ineffective leaders often don’t. However, it’s interesting to note that both kinds of leaders make mistakes. No one is perfect. What sets these two kinds of leaders apart is how they handle their mistakes.
In fact, you can tell a lot about leaders simply by the phrases they use after they’ve messed up. For example, have you ever heard anyone say something like someone messed up, or mistakes were made? This shows a person realizes a mistake has been made but they aren’t willing to assign blame, especially to themselves.
It would be much more effective to say something like: after reviewing the problem we were able to determine that we, or I, made a mistake by (enter the mistake here). Then you need to own it and accept responsibility and explain how you plan to fix it.
Another common phrase you might hear an ineffective These Two Phrases Are Signs of Weak Leadershiptive leader make is something like: I’m sorry if you were offended. This is also a cop out. You aren’t really apologizing when you use a phrase like this. You’re admitting that your sorry, but you’re not really saying for what. You’re also redirecting the blame onto the person who was offended, instead of the offender.
Instead you should apologize for the specific thing you did that caused the offense. And if you aren’t really sorry, then don’t pretend be.
Every one messes up, but the difference between good and bad leaders is in their response.
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