Great leaders learn from their missteps. Thomas L. Friedman, in his column in the New York Times today, talks about a new book by the noted pollster Stanley B. Greenberg titled, “Dispatches from the War Room” which describes the “crashes” experienced by Bill Clinton, Nelson Mandela, Ehud Barak and Tony Blair and what they learned from these very difficult challenges to their leadership. Friedman sums it up with this wonderfully insightful conclusion to his column:
You can’t be too honest in describing big problems, too bold in offering big solutions, too humble in dealing with big missteps, too forward in re-telling your story or too gutsy in speaking the previously unspeakable.
