It feels okay to be wrong in private and particularly humiliating to be wrong in public, thanks to our ego.
This is why leaders are disproportionally paid.
They make decisions publicly without necessarily having a better batting average than an average Joe; live with the humiliation of being wrong often; and go out to make decisions again.
It takes a unique type of courage that cannot be understood until you take on the responsibility of leadership.
To understand it, let us start with the first leaders most people are exposed to – parents.
Most times, parents are learning to be parents, just as much as children are learning to grow right. Yet parents are saddled with making many irreversible life shaping decisions for their kids – nutrition, schooling, and the space they are nurtured.
You learn how fallible your parents are when you are already almost fully formed, and then, you are faced with two choices – gratitude for their courage or disgust for their failings. The choice you make fully forms you into a person of gratitude or a person of entitlement.
One thing I keep learning daily is to be kind to leaders, however I perceive the quality of their choices.
– Osasu Oviawe
