By Oluwole Dada
In an era where authenticity is increasingly valued over polish, leaders who can admit mistakes publicly gain a significant competitive advantage. They build deeper trust with their teams, and customers. They create more innovative cultures and develop the resilience necessary to navigate an uncertain business environment.
The courage to be wrong isn’t about being wrong at all but about being honest, adaptive, and committed to continuous improvement. In a world that changes faster than ever, these qualities are essential for survival. The most successful leaders of the next decade won’t be those who never make mistakes, but those who make mistakes well, learn from them quickly, and have the courage to share those lessons with the world.
When Netflix CEO Reed Hastings announced the disastrous Qwikster spin-off in 2011, splitting the company’s streaming and DVD services, customer backlash was swift and brutal. The company lost 800,000 subscribers in a single quarter. Instead of deflecting blame or spinning the narrative, Hastings did something remarkable: he admitted the decision was wrong. “I messed up,” he wrote in a public blog post, acknowledging that the company had moved too fast without properly explaining the changes to customers.
More importantly, he reversed course entirely. This admission didn’t destroy his credibility but enhanced it. Netflix’s stock price, which had plummeted during the crisis, began its recovery almost immediately. Today, the company’s market capitalization exceeds $150 billion.
Hastings understood that being able to admit mistakes publicly is a sign of authenticity and it builds trust faster than perfection could ever. When leaders admit mistakes, they signal to their teams and stakeholders that they’re human, approachable, and committed to learning rather than ego protection.
The most impactful, respected, and ultimately successful leaders I have studied over the years are not those who never err. They are the rare few who possess the almost terrifying courage to look themselves, their teams, and the market in the eye and declare, with conviction, “I was wrong.” This isn’t weakness. This is profound strength.
On the other hand, Kodak for decades was the undisputed king of photography. Ironically, a Kodak engineer invented the first digital camera in 1975. However, the success of their film business and the fear of the digital camera cannibalizing it blinded the leaders. They refused to fully embrace digital technology.
They knew the future was digital but lacked the courage to admit their core business model was becoming obsolete and pivot decisively. They clung to their legacy, and the company eventually filed for bankruptcy. It wasn’t a lack of IQ. It was a devastating lack of courage to be wrong about their future.
Amazon’s Jeff Bezos built an empire on the principle of “failing fast and cheap.” The company’s graveyard of failed products from the Fire Phone to Amazon Destinations reads like a catalog of expensive mistakes. Each failure cost millions, yet Bezos consistently defended these “experiments” in shareholder letters. “Failure and invention are inseparable twins,” Bezos famously wrote. “To invent you have to experiment, and if you know in advance that it’s going to work, it’s not an experiment.”
The Fire Phone alone lost Amazon over $170 million, but Bezos publicly acknowledged the failure while extracting valuable lessons that later informed the successful development of Alexa and Echo devices.
In 2018, Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff made a stunning admission during the company’s annual Dreamforce conference. He acknowledged that despite years of promoting workplace equality, Salesforce had significant gender pay gaps. Rather than quietly addressing the issue internally, Benioff made the problem public and committed to spending $3 million annually to ensure equal pay. “We didn’t know we had a problem,” Benioff told the audience. “But when we found out, we fixed it.”
This transparency could have been damaging, but instead it reinforced Salesforce’s commitment to its stated values. The company’s employee satisfaction scores increased, and it became a magnet for top talent who valued working for an organization that practiced what it preached.
The study of great leaders who embrace public mistakes follow a consistent pattern. First, they acknowledge the error quickly and directly, without deflection or excuse-making. Second, they take full responsibility rather than distributing blame. Third, they outline specific lessons learned and how these insights will inform future decisions.
Finally, they demonstrate change through concrete actions rather than just words. This framework transforms mistakes from career-ending disasters into career-defining moments. It shows stakeholders that the leader possesses the emotional intelligence to learn from failure and the strength of character to prioritize organizational success over personal ego.
In conclusion, mistakes will always happen as that is inevitable. What separates the competent from the exceptional is not whether there is an error, but whether there is the conviction to declare it, the discipline to fix it, and the humility to learn from it publicly. Leaders who embrace that ugly, liberating truth build teams that are faster, smarter and more resilient.
Admitting wrong does not signal indecision, it signals clarity. It invites others to point problems out early. It turns the leader into a lever for collective learning. Public admission of mistakes creates a culture where taking calculated risks became the norm rather than the exception.
Oluwole Dada is the General Manager at SecureID Limited, Africa’s largest smart card manufacturing plant in Lagos, Nigeria.
