By Mark Phillips
 
Leaders should realize when employees make mistakes; it's not to tick them off, said Tom Easton, consultant and senior partner of the Essential Action Design Group. And when leaders make mistakes themselves, it's very important to own up to it.

At left: Mirela Beecham, of Federal-Mogul (right) and Johnathan Van Dorn, of Robert Bosch, participate in mock negotiations during the Leadership 2.0 session Wednesday.
 
"Your employees didn't do it on purpose," Easton told students of Northwood University's Leadership 2.0 class Wednesday morning. "They didn't do it to make the company lose money."

The first and most important thing for leaders to do at any organization is to own up to a mistake, Easton said.
 
"When the mistake has been made, usually, it won't heal itself," he said. Once a mistake happens, the organization needs to move quickly to revamp things. "Move on fearlessly. Put it behind you," Easton said. For the most part, Easton says, "It's not a business-killer. It's not a career-killer. As a leader, put it behind your team. Don't let the mistake become a cancer that eats away at you."
 
Chuck Udell, Easton's partner at the Essential Action Design Group, asked the class, "Is a mistake a friend or foe? It's up to the leader." With taking risks comes making mistakes. And without taking risk comes the risk that an organization won't advance and thrive. "All leaders will stumble and fall," Udell said. "It's what leaders do next that is most important."
 
Later Wednesday afternoon, students participating in the second session of Leadership 2.0 for this year engaged in three negotiation scenarios. The most spirited discussion involved students breaking into two groups and portraying two pharmaceutical companies. Both companies wanted 3,000 prized Tahitian grapefruit to produce a product. One wanted to produce an AIDS medicine to save infants; the other a shampoo. The promise of an AIDS medication wasn't enough to urge one company to give the other unfettered access to the grapefruit. In the end, the teams agreed to split the costs down the middle and share the fruit.