Own up: what a yoga teacher taught me about high performance

Stefan’s been practising Ashtanga yoga for 50 years.  

He’s written enough yoga textbooks to fill a library shelf.  

And he often forgets to do precisely what he instructs his readers to do. He laughed as he admitted this to us in a workshop last month. 

By owning up to the mistakes he makes in some of the poses he has been practising for half a century, Stefan made us feel safe to be imperfect too. It also made us more open to learning from him over the next few hours. 

What a great lesson for a facilitator. I didn’t just improve my yoga asanas in Stefan’s workshop. I deepened my facilitation practice too. 

What this means for leaders and teams 

Imagine if all leaders showed their fallibility as readily as Stefan. 

In her research with teams, Amy Edmondson found that when leaders show their fallibility, they create the conditions for their teams to do the same.  

Edmondson was surprised to find that the best-performing teams she studied didn’t make fewer mistakes than other teams. As she put it: 

‘Maybe better teams don’t make more mistakes. Maybe they’re more willing and able to talk about them.’ 

And the leader needs to go first. 

High performance — at work or on the yoga mat — isn’t about getting everything right. It’s about being honest when you don’t. 

© Jacinta Cubis 

I can only recall a few leaders I’ve worked for who were comfortable showing their fallibility. Maybe I’ve been unlucky. How about you? Have you come across a leader like Stefan lately—one able to own up when they get it wrong? 

Thanks for reading this far! 

Stay (fl)awesome! 

This blog is part of a series exploring how we respond to failure — from denial all the way through to learning. Last week’s video introduced owning up. Watch it [HERE].