I’m going to get straight to the point.
Stop labouring over the mistake and instead, focus your time on the correction. The answer is not buried somewhere in the twentieth minute of yesterday's replay. What happened is done and, in most cases, cannot be undone.
The correction is where change happens, not the scold.
I recently interrupted one of those conversations.
“The change won’t come from labouring over the mistake. It comes from talking about the correction and talking about how to stop it happening again."
The room went quiet.
Not because nobody had thought about it that way before but because everyone thinks they should turn the error into a drama before moving on.
My mum once said to me: “There’s no point crying over split milk.”, ten seconds after I dropped a pint of milk over the kitchen floor. What happend next? We cleaned it up.
By all means, understand what happened. Learn from it, then move on.
Coaching doesn’t happen by becoming an expert in yesterday. It happens by preparing someone for tomorrow.
That’s why I’ve stopped asking “Why?” as my first question. Instead, I ask:
- “Show me what you’ll do next time.”
Then practice until it becomes the habit.
Until next time, Aileen
Exceptional Leaders: Episode 3 is now available on Spotify.
This month's exceptional leader Aura Dornineau, who is well known for her leadership and innovation; shares with us how to always remain authentically you.
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