Leadership is a continuous journey marked by perpetual learning, personal growth, and the occasional misstep. This episode delves into the critical concept of navigating mistakes in leadership, emphasizing the importance of owning up to errors, reflecting on them, and using them as pivotal learning experiences. Leaders often face the dilemma of reconciling their actions with their core values and, at times, may falter in upholding these values. Addressing such slip-ups candidly and constructively is essential for personal and professional development. This episode explores the inevitable mistakes leaders make, the feelings of shame and impostor syndrome that can follow, and the reflective practices necessary to turn these setbacks into stepping stones for future success. Understanding and implementing these practices is vital for any leader striving to improve themselves, their team, and their organization. Leadership is less about perfection and more about resilience, accountability, and the commitment to continual improvement.
Timestamped Overview
01:31 – 02:10: Discussion on leadership as a continuous journey, not a destination.
02:10 – 03:25: Scott highlights the unpredictability of the leadership journey, sharing his own recent experience.
03:25 – 05:03: Exploration of the Leader Core Values exercise from the Leader Growth Mastermind.
05:03 – 06:00: Scott reveals his recent failure to uphold one of his core values: respect.
06:00 – 06:57: Scott expresses initial feelings of shame upon recognizing his mistake.
06:57 – 07:53: Scott describes experiencing impostor syndrome after his error.
07:53 – 08:49: Importance of reflection following a mistake and Scott’s process of personal reflection.
08:49 – 09:26: Emphasis on corrective actions and learning from mistakes to avoid repetition.
09:26 – 10:39: Discussion on the After Action Review process and sustained reflection for continuous improvement.
10:39 – 11:48: Scott’s commitment to doing better in future scenarios and upholding core values.
Join Our Elite Mastermind Community
Join Scott and our dynamic Mastermind Community! 🚀
Unlock the power of growth-focused leadership with a group of like-minded individuals who are passionate about taking their leadership skills to the next level. 🌟
Ready to transform your leadership journey? Click here for more information! 👉📈
Leave an iTunes Review
Get a FREE membership!
If you’re enjoying the show, leave us a review on your favorite podcast app. If your review is chosen as the Review-of-the Week, we’ll get a free month to the Leader Growth Mastermind!
What do: Write a review, send an email to scott@movingforwardleadership.com with a screen capture of the review, and wait to hear it read out on the show!
Thanks for the amazing support!
Write your review or rating here:
Unlock Your Peak Leadership Potential with Personalized 1-to-1 Coaching
Elevate your leadership to its highest potential with personalized 1-to-1 coaching from Scott. Discover the path to peak performance and achieve unparalleled success in your leadership journey. Ready to unlock your leadership’s full potential?
Subscribe to the Peak Performance Leadership Podcast
Join thousands of leaders worldwide who are transforming their leadership skills with the Peak Performance Leadership podcast. Unleash your full potential and stay at the forefront of leadership trends. Subscribe now and embark on your leadership journey of excellence!
Follow us on Your Favorite Social Media
Share now!
-
Facebook
-
Linkedin
-
Twitter
-
Reddit
-
Whatsapp
-
Telegram
Scott McCarthy
Transcript
The following is an AI generated transcript which should be used for reference purposes only. It has not been verified or edited to reflect what was actually said in the podcast episode.
Scott McCarthy [00:00:00]:
On episode 238 of the Peak Performance Leadership podcast, I go solo again and I’m gonna confess, I screwed up. And here’s what I learned about it. Are you ready for this? Alright. Let’s do it. Welcome 1. Welcome all to the Peak Performance Leadership Podcast, a weekly podcast series dedicated to helping you hit peak performance across the three domains of leadership. Those being leading yourself, leading your team, and leading your organization. This podcast couples my 20 years of military experience as a senior Canadian army officer with world class guests, bringing you the most complete podcast of leadership going.
Scott McCarthy [00:00:54]:
And for more, feel free to check out our website at movingforwardleadership.com. And with that, let’s get to the show. Yes. Welcome 1. Welcome all to the Peak Performance Leadership Podcast. It is your chief leadership officer, Scott McCarthy. And thanks for coming out. It’s so good to have 1 and all of you with me on this journey of being the best leader that we can be across those three domains.
Scott McCarthy [00:01:31]:
Those being leading yourself, leading your team, and leading your organization. And I just said that leadership’s a journey. It’s is a journey. It is not a destination. There is no end goal here per se because real leaders basically never stop especially when you look at those 3 domains. Right? Leading yourself. You don’t stop leading yourself, leading your team. You don’t stop leading your team if you look at everybody who touches you as team members.
Scott McCarthy [00:02:10]:
And then we are always part of an organization whether that is at work or if you look at your home, that is an organization as well. And I’ll tell you the reason why I am really harping on leadership is a journey is because sometimes the journey goes backwards to go further forward. Or sometimes you may have to make a left turn accidentally, and then you get back on track. And I’m gonna get real with you in this episode, ladies and gentlemen. I’m gonna get a bit vulnerable and I’m gonna peel back the curtain to say, I’m not perfect. If I ever if you’ve listened to the show for any amount of time and you think that I think I am perfect, I’ve given you the wrong impression. I make mistakes. And recently, I had the mirror placed up in front of me and had it basically smashed into my face.
Scott McCarthy [00:03:25]:
And I don’t say that with jest or jokingly to the point where I think it is a joke, I do not, but rather that is the mental image I have in my head and how I deserve it. So let’s go back a little bit. You know, I talked about leadership as a journey, but as well, in the leader growth mastermind, one of the exercises that I have new members do is their leader core values. And this is where you go through a list of values, and you basically break it down and determine which ones are your core ones, the ones that mean the most to you. And then I have the members write out, a leader a leader being statement, you know, how they are going to lead based off of these core values. It’s a very simple but yet powerful exercise because it enables you to understand, you know, who you are as an individual, but most importantly as a leader and enables you to make decisions based off of these values that aligned up with who you are as a person. So it’s been brought to my attention. It was brought to my attention by my my supervisor that I didn’t live up to one of my values in the recently past, I would say.
Scott McCarthy [00:05:03]:
In fact, I completely and utterly obliterate living up to that value, I would say, in this particular instant. I’m not gonna go into the details of the instant because, well, they’re irrelevant. And 2, out of respect of the individuals involved, I won’t do so. So it’s quite vague, but who cares? It doesn’t matter. So that core value that I obliterated at that incident was respect. So I was quite disrespectful to a group of individuals and basically, it got shung back in my face. And once I got confronted on it by my supervisor, holy smokes. It nailed me like a ton of bricks when I realized what had happened.
Scott McCarthy [00:06:00]:
So that being said, what did I go through? So I’m gonna tell you what you’re going to go through when you you make a similar mistake. And if you’re any type of leader, one who is humble, one who wants to learn, one who wants to grow, one who wants to do their best, you will likely go through something similar. And I will tell you impostor syndrome was 4th and foremost. Actually, before impostor syndrome hit me, I will tell you there was a bit of shame in that. I was like, wow. I can’t believe I actually did that. And in talking with my supervisor, my boss, and I was, I was basically ashamed of myself there with him. And I said, yeah.
Scott McCarthy [00:06:57]:
I did do that. Wow. What was I thinking that day? Why did I do such and such a thing? Following that was a heavy imposter syndrome. Who the hell am I? How do I go get off in doing that? How do I go and run a podcast about being the best leader you can be when here I am acting like an arrogant boss in this circumstance. And I went through that imposter syndrome for for a while, for a good few hours for sure. And it took a little bit of work for me to snap out. In fact, it probably took me till the next day until I got out of it. But here’s what I didn’t do, and this is my advice to you to you the leader when you fail because you will fail.
Scott McCarthy [00:07:53]:
We all fail. The next thing I did was I reflect it. I start putting my fingers to the keyboard and basically wrote a little journal article on my own reflections of why did the things I did and why where I failed. And here, ladies and gentlemen, is the kicker. What am I going to do to fix it? What am I going to do differently? You see, people can within reason accept mistakes. And even my boss said to me, he’s like, in the grand scheme of things, this is not big. But this is a learning moment for you if you choose it to be. And that’s what I basically took it as after.
Scott McCarthy [00:08:49]:
So what am I going to do differently the next time this type of situation comes up? And that is where I placed the bulk of my, basically, thoughts and time. I identified my failures. Yes. For sure. I thought about what transpired. Absolutely. But here’s the kicker, what am I going to do differently? And that is what people are looking for. People will forgive you if you screw up, especially if you own it.
Scott McCarthy [00:09:26]:
What they won’t do is forgive you if you keep making the same mistakes over and over and over again. So when you screw up, when you make a mistake, when you fail as a leader, so we all do take time and go, what will I do different next time? And if you’ve been following me and I talked about the after action review sometimes on the show, this is basically it. What happened? Why it happened? What to do differently? And basically, that is what I did. And that was is actually what I’m still doing. I’m not done my after action review yet. I still have some more reflection to do. I still need to put my fingers to the keyboards. But I tell you I feel a hell lot better and I am confident that the next time I am faced with a scenario similar to this one that I won’t screw up next time.
Scott McCarthy [00:10:39]:
I won’t make the same mistake, and I definitely as hell will not go against one of my core values and especially that one, Hafin, respect. So ladies and gentlemen, my question to you is, what are you gonna do when you screw up? How are you gonna handle it? You can wallow in self pity or you can pick yourself up, dust yourself off, figure out what you did wrong, why you did it, and then most importantly, what are you going to do next time? And that ladies and gentlemen is today’s episode. So best of luck to you out there, leader. It ain’t easy, but you know what? It’s a 100% worth it. Till next time, ladies and gentlemen. Remember as always, lead, don’t boss, and take care now. And that’s a wrap for this episode, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you for listening.
Scott McCarthy [00:11:48]:
Thank you for supporting the Peak Performance Leadership Podcast. But you know what you could do to truly support the podcast and know that’s not leaving a rating and review. It’s simply helping a friend, and that is helping a friend by sharing this episode with them if you think this would resonate with them and help them elevate their performance level, whether that’s within themselves, their teams, or their organization. So do that. Help me, help a friend win win all around and hey, you look like a great friend at the same time. So just hit that little share button on your app and then feel free to fire this episode to anyone that you feel would benefit from it. Finally, there’s always more. There’s always more lessons around being the highest performing leader that you can possibly be, whether that’s for yourself, your team, or your organization.
Scott McCarthy [00:12:46]:
So why don’t you subscribe? Subscribe to the show via moving forward leadership dot com forward slash subscribe. Until next time, lead, don’t boss, and thanks for coming out. Take care now.