Perfect Leader; Who, Me?

A couple of months ago I did a video interview with Jesan Sorrells of Human Services Consulting and Training. During that interview we talked about the topic of conflict resolution, since that's what his business is based on. It was a fun and wild conversation, and I hope you decide to check it out.

Fluffy_ Steve via Compfight

At one point he owned up to the fact that he's not always perfect at handling conflict in his own life. After all, he's got 3 kids to deal with, is in business for himself (trust me, sometimes that comes with conflict), reacts to immediate stimulus when he's caught off guard... pretty much like the rest of us. However, what he's got is a set of skills he's learned over many years that helps him get past it sooner than most people. Still, he recognized it was something he had to deal with from time to time, and felt that it helps his perspective when working with others.

Although it didn't come up in the interview, I've never been a perfect leader either. Although I feel I have very good leadership skills that have helped me along all these years, there have been times when I've lost my mind and perspective. Although I've never yelled or raised my voice at work (since I don't cuss I've never used inappropriate language either), I've been sarcastic and snarky at times.

I've reacted badly at times when someone said or did something I didn't like. I've been on the verge of wanting to physically fight someone on one occasion (I was sick at the time but still...). Once I was shaking so bad from anger and trying to control myself during a particular situation that the next day one of the employees told me she thought I was going to hit someone.

It's because of those experiences that I can identify with people who tell me that sometimes they lose their cool. It takes a lot to get me upset, and sometimes it can take a long time for me to calm down. Yet, I do have a set of leadership skills that helps me get beyond that. Those same skills have kept me from ever making a lot of other mistakes, and yet...

No sense in writing about more of them since, as you can see, there's a video below talking about 7 ways I'm not a perfect leader. Some of these aren't all that bad... but they're bad enough to mention. Let me know your thoughts on that, what I've written above, and how you find ways to overcome times when you haven't been a perfect leader.