Total Leader and Coach Solutions Australia Blog

You think you are immune.  You think that because you have natural physical talent that you are immune to depression and mental illness.  Let’s be frank – you are not.  In fact, you are probably most at risk. Let me share my story and views with you.

As a parent of two beautiful girls I understand the desire to protect and nurture.  I also know that every parent has the best intentions for the way they parent and provide the caring and nurturing environment that our children need. As a leader I also know that I have a similar genuine intention to develop my people and generate a high performing team.

Recently we have been delivering Mental Well-Being and Resilience programs to leaders for one of our clients, and it has become apparent that there is a flawed definition of Resilience that results in not only less effective leadership but lowered resilience.

Rather than investing significant amount of resources on ineffective interventions, perhaps we need to consider equipping our leaders simply with the ability to have effective conversations. I believe there are just THREE conversations that every leader needs to know how to implement. 

How important are mistakes?  This question has been playing through my mind over the last few weeks while working on a conference presentation on ‘Disruptive Thinking’ and the work with a number of our clients on cultivating a ‘Culture of Accountability’.  In addition, as a father of two young girls I have been considering the role of mistakes in my daughter’s development and our response as parents to their mistakes. I believe we need to re-evaluate how we respond to mistakes, as both parents and leaders, and consider if we need to re-think how best to harness the power of a mistake.