Dare to do a Redo

Be comfortable being wrong...Really?

Read a number of articles that related comments Jeff Bezos made about leaders and being right.  When asked about what he is looking for in a leader he said, “I want people who are right most of the time….I want to see a track record of hard decisions that ended up being right.”  

The interesting part is that this does not necessarily mean a leader never changes their mind.  In fact, he goes on to say that this type of self-correcting behavior is positive, even encouraged, because the smartest people he has observed are often, “...revising their understanding, reconsidering a problem they thought they’d already solved. They’re open to new points of view, new information, new ideas, contradictions, and challenges to their own way of thinking.”  

​OK, so gather some initial data, be decisive and act.  Then gather new data, openly embracing any challenge to your earlier decision and, if necessary...do a redo.  The key is to get it right and sometimes that redo is the hardest/bravest decision you will make.

This is true in strategy, product management, people management, solution design and raising a family. It is about being open. I plan to share more examples of the payoff for putting yourself in a position to a leverage a redo.

“Progress is impossible without change, and those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything.” - George Bernard Shaw

Can you quickly bring to mind a situation where you made the hard business decision for a redo and had it pay off?  You should, you may be asked...

---