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Mindset
Leadership:
the freedom to
make mistakes
Spring 201490
“Freedom is not worth
having if it does not
include the freedom to
make mistakes”
–Mahatma Ghandi
Spring_MS_Wahba2 .indd 90 4/1/14 4:38 PM

Mindset
By Abdelrahman Wahba
F
reedom is not worth having if it does
not include the freedom to make mis-
takes”
–Mahatma Ghandi. As cliché as it
may sound, starting an article with a quote from
Ghandi pretty much puts things into perspective.
Yet, the quote is not about fighting oppression or
foreign occupation, it’s about business leaders giv-
ing their subordinates room to make mistakes; a de-
gree of freedom usually chained proportionally with
the size of the organization, despite some anoma-
lies. But what is the freedom to make mistakes?
The first time I have ever heard such a term was
around eight years ago when I was watching an
Egyptian TV program called Allah Aalam (Allah
Knows Better), where Egyptian journalist and talk
show host, Ibrahim Issa hosted a scholar talking
about freedom in Islam. The episode discussed the
wider aspects of freedom granted to people during
the Islamic era. The principle idea is that human
beings learn from their mistakes. They have the
right to learn. Hence, they have the right to make
mistakes as part of the learning process.
In fact, it is “only human” to make mistakes —
another cliché.
Obviously, this is not carte blanche for people to
run around in a destruction-frenzy crying “Oops!”
at the end of their rampage. This comes with a set
of rules:
The “mistaken” has to apply the best
of his/her knowledge and resources
to achieve the objectives required and
actually do all that is necessary to avoid
mistakes. So that mistakes, when they occur, are
genuinely “honest.”
The “mistaken” has to be honest in ad-
mitting the mistake, owning it and
figuring out how to fix it. Most impor-
tantly, work to fix it. This seals the deal
on the learning part of the experience.
Management should not scold the “mis-
taken” too much, especially when
they find him/her already on course-
correction and has already self-lashed
himself/herself enough.
In cases where mistakes are relatively
expected, management should already
have some backup plans in place to
cover up for the mess and help the “mis-
taken” get out of the hole. It is a bit idealistic, I
know. But this is the way it has to be, at least part
of the time.
It is also the management’s responsibil-
ity to objectively review the situation
with the “mistaken” and jointly work
together to avoid falling in the same
trap.
It is of paramount importance to look
for improvement and not just single
out the mistake on the “mistaken”
appraisal. It is only fair to consider
how the mistake has been handled by the
“mistaken,” appreciate owning up to it and fix-
ing it and overcome the temptation to use it as a
form of Trojan horse to devaluate his/her overall
performance.
Having worked in multinational and local com-
panies, as well as my own company for the past sev-
en years, I can easily say that the above mentioned
points, though simple and straightforward, are sel-
dom applied. Projecting on cultural dimensions we
find the following:
Power distance, being one of the cultural vari-
ables of higher scores in Egypt and the region, con-
tributes generously to this phenomenon by creat-
ing barriers to open communication between man-
agement and their subordinates. The higher the hi-
erarchical distance in the organization, the bigger
the barriers; the bigger the barriers, the murkier the
Uncertainty avoidance, also
being a general pillar of
the Egyptian business cul-
ture, adds to the hesitation
to assume responsibility
for fear of making mistakes
and the consequences.
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Spring 2014 91

Mindset
communication; the murkier the communication,
the tougher it is to admit mistakes and own up to
them. The tougher this becomes, the more intense
the communication becomes and we find ourselves
in the vicious circle of passing blame around like a
hot coal — and “Welcome to where time stands still,
no one leaves and no one will.”
Uncertainty avoidance, also being a general pil-
lar of the Egyptian business culture adds to the
hesitation to assume responsibility for fear of mak-
ing mistakes and the unknown consequences that
would occur. Like passing blame, people tend to
pass around responsibility. Obviously, laziness
partially drives such behavior. But so does
the tendency to avoid falling into the un-
known where the mistakes are.
This becomes very prevalent
when you survey companies
for the number of em-
ployees who “ask for
forgiveness, rather
than permission,”
and tend to find
such numbers minis-
cule. Conscientiousness,
in other words responsibility
and reliability, are rare goods in
our market and in our country gen-
erally. Regardless of the reasons for such
scarcity, it does have a significant impact in
diminishing the freedom to make mistakes.
The obvious consequence of this phenomenon
is that managers in our region are generally hesi-
tant to delegate correctly, give subordinates space
to grow and do it in a healthy way. This is fostered
by the best of intensions – to guarantee the quality
of delivery because of its critical nature or strategic
importance.
On the other hand:
Scientifically as well as by common sense, mistakes
are a substantial way to grow, as people learn from
their mistakes more than they learn from their suc-
cesses.
And the science of that is manifested in the situ-
ational leadership model developed by Paul Hersey
and Ken Blanchard, which I would highly recom-
mend to be read.
In a nutshell, the situational leadership model is
about changing your leadership and communication
model based on your subordinates’ abilities, levels of
confidence and willingness to perform certain tasks.
As a leader, you provide directives and instructions
to your lower-competence/confidence subordinates.
You “tell” them what to do.
When their levels of confidence rise, you start ex-
plaining the backgrounds of the tasks and their in-
fluence and meaning. In other words, you “sell”
them the task they are asked to do.
Things can be fine and dandy until
your employees start showing higher
levels of competence and confi-
dence. Now you are relatively
in trouble. If you continue
using the same leader-
ship style despite
the change in
the situation,
your employees can
start to get bored or start
having time-wasting discus-
sions, since they want to flex
their newly built muscles.
Or, you keep them under-utilized
while work keeps piling up on your shoul-
ders until you have a breakdown or a heart at-
tack, or simply start slipping on delivery.
Here you need to change your strategy with them
to – “cheer.”
It basically means that you put them to the test
on a task or project that defies their abilities, and for
which they might be lacking in confidence. It does
not necessarily mean that you should drop them in
Things can be fine and dandy
until your employees start
showing higher levels of
competence and confidence.
goals and support them.
OOPS!
Spring 201492

Mindset
tions accordingly.
Having said that, here is what I think should be
accounted for throughout this journey:
You have to decide to commit to it; a deep mental
and emotional decision to persevere.
This is a mid-to-long-term orientation, so expect
some backlash and backfire in the short term. But it
will build a positive reputation for you as a manager
and business leader, attracting high caliber coura-
geous people to work with you, who are willing to
take risks and innovate.
Mistakes will happen anyway so make use of them
even while fighting them.
Try to shield off your employees from the pressure
of corporate politics and create a place for them to
grow. This space will become a place of innovation
that will hopefully spread out through the organiza-
tion – if you managed to tweak the recipe in lieu of
the company culture.
The first step in enabling this freedom is to own
up to your mistakes and those of your management
techniques, and fix them. Do the same, especially
with your employees. First-hand experience says that
this will make them do the same with you.
Reward the brave for their efforts as much as you
can. Do not setup a guillotine for them.
On the other hand, abusers should be banned
from this privilege, if they exceed a predefined num-
ber of chances to show improvement and genuine
interest to progress via their mistakes in an attempt
to avoid them in the future. This is where you setup
the guillotine.
Your worry about things getting messy is in fact
highly overrated, since any organizational work is
by no means a walk in the park. So, if you are going
through hell anyway, why not go through the path
that leads to growth?
One final cliché before this article comes to an end:
the freedom to make mistakes is in fact one of the
key factors to any organizational growth both indi-
vidually and collectively.
Indeed, but are you willing to pay the short term
price for it?
Are you really willing to make this kind of invest-
ment? ABR
the middle of the ocean and ask them to swim back
home. The idea here is to give them a challenge that
is both bigger than their confidence and abilities. As-
sure them that they will take the credit for success,
while you – being their manager and all – will take
the blame for their mistakes. And as a seasoned man-
ager, you should have some tricks up your sleeve to
cover up their likely mess.
This point in any manager-employee relationship
is very crucial and usually inflectional. It either be-
comes a founding point in creating a second line of
competent executives and forging a new line of trust
between both, or it starts building up resentment
and ill-feeling.
I can claim that this is one of the most overlooked
or sometimes misused moments of business history.
Managers either ignore this opportunity in danger-
disguise – obeying only the dangerous appearance
and doing the stuff themselves – or they push their
employees towards it with a hidden agenda to scape-
goat them; and I’m not excluding myself.
This situation is the first step to oppress the free-
dom to make mistakes, which is the gate to innova-
tion and potential tapping. As an exercise — please
do not try this it if you are unable to be honest with
yourself — try to go back in time with your memory
and remember the reasons and situations that made
you the competent manager you are now. Eight out
of 10 cases will be huge messes that you created and
managed to fix, only because someone believed in
you, your right to the freedom to make your own
mistakes and your right to learn from them.
The million dollar question
“How can people be liberated to make mistakes in a
world dominated by corporate politics, lazy employ-
ees and vultures anxious to take advantage of you?”
I would like to remind you that if this is an abso-
lute new practice for you, then you will be in for a
ride. This is a complete change in mindset, and such
shifts usually take time to sink in and face a lot of
push back from yourself, the people around you and
also the environment.
There is no such thing as a complete and easy fix to
such complex situation. So please set your expecta-
Spring 2014 93

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Abdelrahman Wahba writes to AUC Business Review: Leaderhship: the freedom to make mistakes

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Abdelrahman Wahba writes to AUC Business Review: Leaderhship: the freedom to make mistakes