No more "My Bads"

July 29, 2019

Pat Summitt’s second of twelve leadership clubs in her bag centers on taking full responsibility. She offers the following four points on how to accept responsibility.

1. There are no shortcuts to success.

2. You can’t assume more substantial responsibility without taking responsibility for the small things, too.

3. Being responsible sometimes means making tough, unpopular decisions.

4. Admit to and make yourself accountable for mistakes. How can you improve if you’re never wrong?

Notice, she never mentioned “My Bads” as accepting responsibility. “My Bads” are not taking actual responsibility; they are just two words put together to make people think you’re accountable. Accepting responsibility means there was detailed preparation, thought, hard work, and then a mistake occurred. “My Bads” essentially mean: “I half-assed my prep and screwed up; I will fix it next time.” The only problem is there is no “next time.”

Being responsible also means not lying to anyone. Telling the truth when asked a question and not shaping the answer to fit the narrative, you might sense the person asking may want. If you answer questions to win favor with your boss or superior, you are not accepting the responsibility of the job. “Yes, people” are not responsible; they enable.

It also means when in a leadership role, you always tell the truth. Be brutally honest—tell your staff, your players the absolute hard-edged truth. Don’t hide behind anything or anyone. If the decision was within your authority, then own it, whether it turns out popular or not. Being popular only lasts a short time, being responsible and respected lasts forever.

When interviewing a potential candidate for any position, always ask them for their three or four biggest mistakes during their career. Why? Because unless you admit mistakes, you never learn, grow, and develop. Therefore, if the candidate does not have his or her errors on the tip of their tongue, then they have not entirely learned the lesion the mistakes provide. They probably gave their mistakes, the “my bad” reference.

This leadership club must be taken to the range every single day as you can learn from your mistakes and the mistakes of others. Don’t judge other errors; look at them as an opportunity for your personal growth. When a professional sports team blows a draft selection most in the industry, want to laugh and wonder how they were that stupid, when instead of laughter, examine “the how and why” which will help your next decision. If you only learn from your mistakes, your development will take much longer.

Don’t tolerate “my bad”; don’t laugh at others when making mistakes and embrace the opportunity to use this leadership club every single day as it will pay huge dividends.

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