A business coach asked me a tough question the other day. I think it brings up one of the most important lessons I could learn at this point in my leadership career.

He asked, “Are you doing this because it’s best for your business, or because you want to be right?”

I like being right, and I hate being wrong, so that question was hard for me to digest. My thoughts ran forward to how much damage I might do to my lifetime impact potential. What if I don’t have the maturity to do the wise thing even when it means being wrong in my eyes or someone else’s? The foolish choices I could make in the name of being right scare me.

Leaders need to be resilient. Part of that is having the security to admit a wrong, or tolerate being called wrong, and not let that interfere with wise decision-making.

I’m really thankful he asked me that tough question.