Owning Up

When do you say:  “oops, I made a mistake” ?

Are you able to say ” I am sorry”?

I think transparency is important as a leader. I will never forget the time as a young church planter I was sitting in the living room of some potential core group members. They were attending our meetings and I felt we were connecting fairly well. Then the husband said “you know Larry one thing that bothers us is that you do not seem to have a hard time admitting that you made a mistake. You will be so transparent in front of people. We think a pastor should be above that.”  They wanted a pastor who was perfect and I guess who was able to display that perfection on stage. Obviously they did not stick around. I was too imperfect.

I think in leadership we can become tentative on how much we share and admitting error. If you admit a mistake will you be held accountable for that mistake? You should be held accountable. What will that cost you?

I have for a long time had an interest in corporate apologies.

How often does a corporation admit that they made a mistake? What happens when they do?

How often does a church or church leader admit they probably should have gone a different direction on a ministry?

How often does a team leader or pastor say “you know I messed this up. Can we start over and let’s do it different this time?”

It seems much simpler to just keep going down the road and hoping the next turn will be better and that things will smooth out or correct itself. After all we would not want to give the impression that we are perfect. We could be afraid of the consequences. I have found that most of the time that people will hang with a leader who is transparent and who owns up to his/her humanity.