Three Important Words: “I was wrong”
As I transition out of the weekend and back to the work week, my Sunday night routine invariably includes ESPN’s SportsCenter. I catch up on the games I missed, see the interviews and the often sensational highlights of the day.
I can’t say I’m a fan of auto racing in any of its forms. I don’t have anything against it. I simply don’t watch it. So SportsCenter is about as close as I get. Last night’s highlights included coverage of Formula 1 driver Romain Grosjean’s horrific crash where his car broke in two and burst into flames.
Yet as spectacular as the imagery was of the crash, the first responders’ efforts to save Grosjean and his emergence from the flames climbing over the barrier to safety, it was a comment he made from his hospital bed that I found noteworthy. He admitted he’d been wrong.
"I wasn't for the Halo some years ago but I think it's the greatest thing that we brought to Formula One and without it I wouldn't be able to speak to you today," he said.
Not being a racing fan, I had to look up what a “halo” was. The protective titanium bar was made mandatory for F1 races in 2018 and has faced its critics. With an additional shout out to the fabric Nomex which made up his racing suit, technology certainly saved a life.
But back to the point…. Grosjean was in hindsight able to acknowledge he’d been wrong about something and was giving credit to those who’d had the foresight to require this new tech despite its detractors.
It’s likely that most of us won’t find ourselves in circumstances such as a life saving event that makes world news. But that really shouldn’t be necessary for us to find the courage to utter three simple words when appropriate: “I was wrong.”
It is a fallacy that leaders have to be strong, right, in control, etc. 100% of the time. Heck, if 2020 has taught us anything, it’s that’s simply not realistic.
I recall an interview I conducted several years ago with the late David Glass, then retired Walmart CEO. In the context of Walmart’s growth and all the things they tried, he acknowledged that he and the associates often made mistakes, but that they always tried to learn from them. He quipped with a smirk, “It’s OK to be wrong. You just can’t make a habit of it.”
Glass and Grosjean, perhaps an unlikely pair, give us two looks at a powerful lesson. Is there someone you need to go back to in order to admit you were wrong? (It’s not too late.) Will you be ready to confess the next time?
As leaders and as people, it’s among the most important things we can do.