If you are not making mistakes, you are not taking enough risks! As I used to say when I was a VP of Operations, mistakes are good. Repetition of the same mistake is bad. This reminds me of the famous story of Lee Iacocca. I don’t remember it exactly; however, it was something similar to the following: Someone made a $1 million mistake. He called the person to his office, and the person thought they’d be fired. Instead, his perspective was the opposite - he’d just invested $1 million in the person’s training.

Of course, it is desirable if your mistakes do not total $1 million, but it is rare for mistakes to be that significant. Mistakes are not fatal. On the contrary, it is imperative that we start encouraging our children, employees, peers, etc to take risks and innovate. The only way to push the limits is to make mistakes. The key is to learn from your mistakes! Don’t waste time feeling bad; instead, use them as a learning opportunity.

Innovation will be key to success, especially during the recession. The “tried and true” is unlikely to stand out in the crowd and provide value add; instead, it is critical to experiment with new ideas and new or revised products, services, processes and technologies to find a path to success.

So, test the waters, push the envelope and make a few mistakes - you’ll likely end up far ahead of your competition.

© Lisa Anderson 2009. All rights reserved.

If you worked in a Disneyland environment for several years, do you think you’d get used to Disneyland treatment? Of course! Who wouldn’t like to have a “parade” of good wishes surrounding them on a daily basis. Well, lately, I’ve seen several examples of people transitioning from positive, team-based work environments to different environments (some just different, some negative-based, some with a leader who is negative-based, some with a negative team). Unfortunately, it is at least twice as hard to deal with what might have been a “fine environment” prior to the Disneyland experience than it would have been if you never had the Disneyland experience. I am NOT advocating avoiding creating and/or working in a fabulous environment (after all, I’ve been fortunate enough to work in more than 1 during my career prior to being solely in charge of creating my working environment in my business when most are fortunate to work in just 1) - it can be such an enriching experience not to be missed. Of course, if you are the lead creator, KEEP your new environment, note the effects on your team, and help them understand how to create the elements on their own. And, if you are a participant in the culture/ situation, take a step back and think about what makes (or made) the situation special. How can you create the key elements for yourself? Your team? Your peers? As I said in my last post, assume the position of strength and lead the process (even if you are the lowest man on the totem pole, it can be done). You will be surprised as to how easily it can transition into a new, different positive experience.

© Lisa Anderson 2009. All rights reserved.

Although it sometimes can be true with a short term perspective, I find that if you have a long term perspective, nice guys do NOT finish last!   Especially in today’s turbulent times, relationships are key - and if you are one of the nice guys, it will circle back around to you.  Have faith.  In the last few months, I’ve seen surrmounting evidence that nice guys are making a comeback - of course, the nice guy has to have substence as well as niceness, yet assuming both ingredients exist, be prepared for success.

© Lisa Anderson 2009. All rights reserved.