Business consultant Barry Maher writes, "When you fail, when you make a mistake, you might want to try to keep your head - unless you can think of a lot of situations that were actually improved by panic. And, own up to your mistake-to yourself and to any others involved. Anyone who doesn't realize that's the best course of action hasn't been paying much attention to politics for the last 40 years."
For example, he said, John Kennedy took public responsibility for The Bay of Pigs even though he felt he was deceived by the Central Intelligence Agency. Mr. Maher compared that to the actions of Richard Nixon in Watergate, Ronald Reagan with Iran/Contra and Bill Clinton with Monica Lewinsky.
"When in doubt, tell the truth. If you can't admit your mistakes to yourself, you're never going to learn from them, and you're going to keep repeating them. When you admit mistakes to others who might be affected, you're showing confidence. It's astonishing how well the phrase, 'Boy, I screwed that up, let me take care of it,' works - if you don't have to use it too often," Mr. Maher said.
"Still, it's certainly not necessary to admit your mistakes to anyone who isn't affected by them. Many of the mistakes we make are not really anybody else's business. Even so, bringing them up can be useful. Years ago, when I was selling advertising I used to make it a point to find a problem in the spec ad I'd had created for the customer, the ad I was trying to sell to him. That way, I got him involved in coming up with a solution. And the very lack of perfection made my enthusiasm for the rest of the ad more believable. The fact that I'd pointed out the flaw added to my credibility and my expertise, demonstrated my attention to detail and showed that I was still working to improve the ad."Hall of Fame football coach Bear Bryant used to remark that to hold a team together, 'There's just three things I'd ever say: f anything goes bad, I did it. If anything goes semi-good, then we did it. If anything goes real good, then you did it. That's all it takes to get people to win football games for you.'"
For more from Mr. Maher, visit his website at
