Leadership Dirty Laundry: Advice from a Stain-Removal Expert

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I’m always amazed when someone tells me that s/he loves doing laundry. Mary Hunt, Founder of Debt-Free Living and a syndicated newspaper columnist, is one such laundry-loving fanatic.

“Oh, the joy of doing laundry effectively,” writes Hunt in her Everyday Cheapskate column. While she says she loves the entire laundry process, she especially loves getting stains out.

Generally, Mary tells us to try a lot of stain removal products: “experiment” and do “research.” Most importantly, Hunt says, if you “get serious about stain removal and you’ll have half the battle won.”

Leadership Dirty Laundry

It occurs to me that every leader I know—definitely including me—generates a little leadership dirty laundry, a ‘stain’ if you will, at some point. It’s impossible to avoid. No leader, like every human, can claim perfection…

• Who among us hasn’t made a questionable hire?
• Botched communication?
• Spoken sharply when we truly value kindness?
• Taken an outright bad decision that temporarily ‘stains’ our business or a relationship?

We know that putting leaders on pedestals of perfection can cause disappointment and potentially worse, costly disengagement by let-down-feeling others. (This, I suspect, is one key reason that “authenticity” is an inescapable buzzword in the leadership realm today.)

If you’re willing to admit you have at least a light load of leadership dirty laundry once in a while, let’s turn to Mary Hunt’s expert “get serious” stain-removal advice for guidance.

5 Stain-Removal Tips (& How They May Apply to Leadership)

1. “Treat a stain immediately; time is not on your side.” As a leader, give yourself daily reflection time so that it’s possible for you to identify the ‘stain’ and act fast: own up to yourself that you made a mistake.
2. “Try cold water first.” For leaders, cold water comes in the form of naming what you’ve done—to others. Be transparent and do it as fast as possible.
3. “Blot, never rub or scrub a stain.” Be sure to use a scalpel when addressing your leadership ‘stain.’ Don’t let one poor leadership moment bleed into other areas, other days—no one is an “all-good” or “all-bad” leader, no one “always” does anything.
4. “Pretest a stain product in an inconspicuous place first.” Pre-testing your removal approach with trusted others, like your direct team or executive coach, can give you an inconspicuous place to start (so long as you’re sure they feel safe enough to tell you the unvarnished truth).
5. “Don’t apply heat until the stain is gone.” Sustainable behavior change is the leaders’ heat. Changing your habits and practices that created the ‘stain’ may not be something you can achieve quickly. There could be several reasons why this temporary stain was created—and several ways, over time, that you can best ensure this doesn’t happen again.

What would you add to this stain-removal-come-leadership advice?

We’ve all got a bit of leadership dirty laundry, a faint ‘stain’ or two that we might like to clean up so that we can be the best leaders possible. If you’re anything like me, you may not love doing the laundry but then again, who doesn’t love crisp, clean sheets?

Image via cccomaha.org

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