Have you ever noticed how hard it can be for people to admit they are wrong? And these same people will fight to death in-order to be right, and oftentimes their position is as weak as water. The worst is when it’s proven that they were wrong, and then they don’t have the humility to admit it or better yet, apologize for their self-righteousness.

I have found that the most honorable people admit it when they make a mistake and then do everything in their power to rectify the situation. There’s a lot of maturity and wisdom in admitting you could be wrong. We see this play out a lot in business situations as well. Where people will doggedly stay on a path for all the wrong reasons such as politics, shareholder pressure, optics, ideology, etc. 

The key is for leadership to stay true to their identity of purpose. Which means staying the course of integrity that is your organization. None of this ego-based, having to be right stuff. And when you get off track, admit you are wrong quickly and empathetically. The key is that your apology needs to be authentic and from the heart. Nothing canned or seemingly insincere. Otherwise, don’t bother. In fact, you may have just made things worse.

The opposite of having to be right is doing the right thing. What people who must be right need to understand is that most often it’s better to lose and do the right thing than to win and do the wrong thing. Like you need a cigarette after you win because that is the one and only goal, winning at all costs. If we look at all the carnage that has accompanied the inability to admit a mistake, like nations going to war, families separating, well-meaning people sacrificing everything dear to them, etc. All because they were stuck in a position of not being able to admit they were wrong about something. Don’t let this be you.