A takeaway about screwing up with style

Jazz great Miles Davis said, “If you’re not making a mistake, it’s a mistake.” 

Davis is saying mistakes not only happen, you can “make” them, and get better at making them. Take risks to make things better, or learn what doesn’t. Grow either way. 

Jazz is inherently improvisational, adaptive. Leadership is jazz too. Take more high-learn, low-cost chances.

Davis is saying that mistake-making is a skill, a discipline. One option is intentionally to try something different worth trying to add more value. It might or might not work as we hoped. One way to find out! 

Another option is to respond adaptively to screw-ups you didn’t intend to make. Don’t let the end of that story be “that sucked!” Make “that sucked” the middle of the story, then discover a creative way to make it worth it after all. 

Fun example: An Olympic weightlifter missed a lift. The bar and weights crashed down. He went viral doing a dance as if missing the lift was part of the plan. 

We can learn to make better mistakes, and get better at adapting to them. 

And “get better” at adapting includes less self-condemnation, and more love of whatever leadership music you’re making. 

That’s the takeaway: Learn to love leadership jazz.