The Need to Be Right

No one enjoys being wrong. But we can’t be right 100% of the time. How we handle that gap determines a lot about who we are, as people and as leaders.

The need to be right often originates from fear. The fear may come from an internal source, such as self-doubt or worry about the future. The fear may originate externally too, maybe from someone questioning a decision you made.

But fear is a poor advisor. Fear is False Evidence Appearing Real, a sign of a mind being out of control. On principle, never make a big or small decision from a place of fear. The mind under fear sees a threat where there is only a question.

Awareness offers something different. When you notice fear as it rises, you can pause before it drives your decision making, or before it drives you to defend a previous decision made. In that pause, there is room for the simplest words available to a leader: I’m not sure or I was wrong. Saying these words does not diminish authority as we might subconsciously fear it would. Instead, it dramatically increases people’s trust in us.

Until next time, Sherif