When things start off on the wrong foot….

Last Wednesday was my first meeting as the new president of Triad Networks, a business group that formed close to 30 years ago. I was a member for several years and left the group in 2011 and one year ago this week visited the group, re-joined and within a few months, the current VP, Cindy Essa (a friend from high school soccer days) asked me to be her VP when she took over for President, I said, “Sure.” It’s hard to say “no” to Cindy and for those of you that know the owner of Pastabilities Restaurant in Greensboro, she is one of the most caring, hardworking, dedicated leaders I know……So what I’m saying is….there’s history in this group, I’ve served in Leadership before with this group and I wanted to get started on the right foot. I had an outline prepared so I wouldn’t miss anything.

The meeting began with the pledge, a welcome, recognition of the outgoing president (Cindy), introduction of the new VP, returning treasurer….I asked if we had any guests and then shared a summary sheet of leads/referrals given over the last 12 months and was circulating it throughout the room. I implemented this as VP because I felt like our group needed to track weekly activity as a way to increase membership and show the value of our networking efforts. As the list circulated, I encouraged people to write down the total number if they feel there should be more or less recorded. You see in our group, when you have a lead/referral for another member, the goal is to write the information on a 3 part copy sheet, top copy for the member, middle copy for the record and the third copy to remind you to follow through with the connection.

My administrative assistant compiled the list for me, as she had done in the past. Her strength is attention to detail, that is not one of my strengths. Several minutes into the meeting, I realized I missed the treasurer’s report….why? Because I didn’t look at my outline! At the end of the meeting, one of our members approached me and politely told me he thought the information was incorrect. My heart sank, because I realized that this person was the top producer of leads/referrals and somehow the numbers didn’t match. Dale Carnegie said, “When you are wrong admit it quickly and emphatically.” I apologized and mentioned that the night before I realized one of our new members was not on the list, so I cut and pasted the columns, and must have mixed up the information.

Before lunch that very day, I sent an email to our entire group highlighting that some of the information was inaccurate and that I would bring an updated record of leads/referrals the next week. Humor is what keeps me going so in the email I added, “Thank goodness I’m not a surgeon or I may operate on the right arm instead of the left!” That night I sat on my living room sofa and went through every referral sheet, to confirm the numbers and re-worked the spreadsheet. What I realized is that only 2 members information were switched and one member had several leads on one sheet which threw off the numbers. You see, my administrative assistant isn’t a member of this group – she’s just looking at sheets of paper. I’m the member of the group and should have taken the time to scan the numbers, I only scanned the names to make sure everyone was on the list. Another dynamic I was experiencing is that my kids were flying solo that morning to get to school because my husband was on a business trip…In the back of my mind, I was worried that my youngest would miss the bus or my teenager would sleep through his alarm altogether! I was trying to stay focused, not worry and start on the right foot.

So, what were my learning lessons?

1-Trust that your children can step up and get it done.

2-Review material when a project is returned to you that has been prepared by someone else, especially if you are presenting on the information.

3-Stay in the present moment.

4-Create an outline or agenda and stick to it!

5-Admit your mistakes. Don’t blame other people and seek to make it right.

6-Learn from the mistake and use it as an opportunity to grow.

7-Enjoy the process and focus on the good stuff!

These seven strategies will help you as a leader get started on the right foot!