Acknowledging you are wrong

We all know the uncomfortable feeling of suddenly realizing that mistakes have been made, and the mistakes were our own. That feeling is almost always followed by the realization that there's a choice to make. You can admit the mistake, and take whatever consequences might be forthcoming, or you can try to hide your culpability and hope that no one notices

It usually feels a lot easier to hide the truth. There's something about being human that makes us hesitate to admit fault, even when it's obvious to us and to everyone else that we screwed up.

However, what is easy isn't always right. In fact, admitting you are wrong can change the way others relate to you, and can make you a stronger leader than you've ever been before.

Build Relationships

Why in the world would telling the truth, even when it means saying you're wrong, make your life better?

Trust is basic to any relationship, and you engender trust when you admit you're wrong. Think about it. When you know that someone is wrong but they won't admit it, that relationship doesn't feel very good. In fact, it feels like being right is more important to that person than having an honest, open relationship with you.

Don't be that person.

When you can admit that you're wrong, you show others that you value truth and having good relationships over never being wrong. That not only makes you trustworthy, but also makes you approachable, because others know that they can admit their mistakes to you. (See also: Make Friends and Be Happy)

When you admit that you're wrong, you also prove wrong the common belief that admitting mistakes makes you weak. In fact, it's not admitting your mistakes that weakens you as a leader, and weakens your entire organization (whether that is a business, a country, or a family).

Not acknowledging your mistakes means that you have to find someone else to blame for whatever goes wrong. This means that you end up playing a blame game with employees, family members, neighbors, and this undermines your relationships with them. When someone knows that whatever happened wasn't their fault and you persist in blaming them anyway, you are the one who looks like an uncaring fool.

Learn From Your Mistakes

Making mistakes is human. Since we aren't all-knowing or all-powerful, sometimes we just don't have either the insight or the ability (or both!) to avoid misjudging a situation and, therefore, taking it on from the wrong direction.

However, there's a difference between letting yourself make mistakes and doing the same wrong thing over and over again. Mistakes are human, but they are also learning experiences, and we can improve our responses the next time.

When we admit that we are wrong, that we have actually made a mistake, we state out loud the problem that we have created and we take responsibility for it. Both of these things make it less likely that we will make that mistake next time. Articulating it helps us define what actually went wrong, and taking responsibility motivates us to do better next time. (See also: How to Learn From Your Mistakes)

Gain Respect

When people see you being honest and learning from your mistakes, they will gain new respect for you. We all know that everyone makes mistakes, and that sinking feeling when we realize that we are responsible for tanking a particular situation. And so we all know how much courage it takes to say, "I was wrong. I'm sorry."

Think about other people who you have seen admit their fault. I remember a couple of situations. They are vivid in my mind, even though they happened years ago, and I deeply admire the people who I saw stand up, admit they were wrong, and then work to make changes.

If you want to stand out, whether it's at work, among friends, or at home, you won't do it by putting on a veneer of perfection. Instead, admit it when you're wrong. Ask for forgiveness. Let others see you working to change. If you are sincere in your apology and diligent in your efforts to improve for the future, the people around you will notice and they will esteem you for it.

Saying that you're wrong means that you are willing to earn the respect of the people around you, rather than demanding it along with demanding that they live in your alternate version of reality.