A surprisingly high water bill. A dishwasher left in the front yard. In the span of one week, Gayle Lantz caught herself doing the very thing she’d told listeners to stop doing just weeks earlier: jumping straight to blame.
Rather than beat herself up over it, she turned the moment into a lesson on why leaders need to hold their mistakes, and everyone else’s, a little more loosely.
As Gayle explains, “The lesson isn’t that I failed the no blame test, it’s we’re human, and awareness lets us catch ourselves sooner.”
She talks about the difference between responding to what actually happened versus the added weight you might pile on top of it, and why the story you tell yourself about a mistake matters as much as the mistake itself.
Gayle also shares simple ways leaders can bring more lightness into their teams without minimizing what’s genuinely serious, and a small physical reminder she keeps on her desk to help her stay in the mindset she wants to lead from.
This episode covers:
- Two real-life mishaps that revealed an instinct to blame
- The difference between “there I go again” and “I always mess up”
- How to interrupt a spiral before a small problem becomes a catastrophe
- Caring deeply without carrying everything deeply
- Simple ways to bring genuine lightness to a team
- Three questions to ask yourself this week
LINKS
Previous CEO On The Go Episodes:
Trying to Make Everyone Happy? Why Great Leaders Stop Trying #325