Page 57 - Leadership Secrets of Hillary Clinton

LEADERSHIP SECRETS OF HILLARY CLINTON

about something, you need to listen to the views of others if
you want them to listen to you. This has already been illus-
trated in detail on her listening tour in New York and her
shift to being more collaborative and inclusive when she
was in the Senate.
And, if we are truly engaged in continuous learning, the
one thing that is certain is that we’ll make mistakes. The
only fatal mistake is one that you don’t learn from. In many
organizations, projects are reviewed periodically in terms
of “lessons learned,” with the focus being on improvement
rather than on blame. I think that this is the mindset we all
need to have when we know that we tried our best but
things just didn’t turn out the way we wanted them to.

x SECRET 5: LEARN FROM OTHERS z

I have always been a curious person. As a little girl grow-
ing up in the Midwest, I was always asking “why” or “how”
questions because I didn’t want to miss out on anything
that was happening around me. My father had a huge
influence on me. Watching him build one of the largest
general contracting firms in the country was one of my
greatest learning experiences. The construction industry
was and still is a very tough and competitive business. To
be successful, it is critical to stay informed and connected
to both the customers and the employees. My father didn’t
wait for the information that he needed to come to him;

x 46 z