The author Roy H Williams once wrote that “A smart man makes a mistake, learns from it and never makes that mistake again but a wise man finds a smart man and learns from him how to avoid the mistake altogether”

The ability to not only learn from your own mistakes but also the mistakes of others is an essential quality for leaders to grasp.

Leadership is a never ending journey of gathering knowledge so you must be open to taking lessons from all around you so let’s look back on 2017, an eventful year and look at the world of entertainment, the sports world and the business world to see what leadership lessons we can embrace in order to help us become better leaders in 2018.

The Oscars: Dealing with a brand crisis

In February 2017 the entertainment world gathered together in Hollywood to honour the best films of 2016.

The glitzy event is watched by millions of people around the world to see who wins the Oscar for best film, yet this particular event will always be remembered for a mistake that was just as dramatic as the movies that were nominated.

The highlight of the evening was the Oscar for best motion picture and the winners were announced as La La Land yet as the producers of the movie went on stage to collect their awards it was discovered that the wrong winner was announced and the Oscar should have gone to another movie Moonlight.

Confusion lasted two and a half minutes until the Producers of Moonlight took their rightful place on the stage and the La La land team left with their dreams shattered along with the reputation of Price Waterhouse Coopers.

PWC are the worldwide accountants who have been responsible for the past eighty years for the collection of votes and the secrecy of winners.

Everybody makes mistakes and at some stage every organisation faces a brand crisis when something will happen that will damage your reputation and your future as a leader will depend on how you deal with that crisis.

In such times the key is responsibility and speed, leaders need to take control of the situation because when a brand is in crisis every second counts.

Luckily for PWC La La Land took control of the situation when he said “I’m going to be really proud to hand this to my friends from “Moonlight.” effectively handing over the award he thought he won just three minutes earlier.

The Rugby League Cup: Performing when it matters

In November 2017 Rugby League fans gathered around television screens around the world to watch the Rugby League World Cup.

It was generally considered that the traditional powerhouses of Rugby League, Australia, New Zealand and England would dominate the tournament and while Australia and England contested in the final there was an unexpected shock in the quarter finals as Fiji beat New Zealand 4-2.

In sports as in the business world the unexpected happens, in fact the only thing to expect is the unexpected.

What the Rugby League World Cup highlighted was that it doesn’t matter how skilful you are, how many resources are at your disposal or even what you have achieved in the past.

All of those factors come a distant second to passion.

If as a leader you have passion and you can install that passion in others by giving them something to achieve that is greater than themselves then the team will perform when it matters most.

Facebook Stock rise: Social Media is now big, big business

In the third quarter of 2017 Facebook posted revenue of over $10 billion dollars which was 47 per cent higher than the same quarter the previous year.

These types of results helped increase the price of Facebook stock by nearly 50 per cent.

The introduction of social media has changed the business world and leaders have had to learn how to deal with this changing environment and it continues to change.

Social media is now big businesses with Facebook and Twitter now becoming public companies with shareholders who don’t just have people to use their services, their focus now is on profits.

Even as early as 2016 a business could generate interest by posting messages on their Facebook account or sending a tweet on Twitter.

Send something interesting that engages their potential or existing customers, build followers and sell products but social media is now different.

Facebook in 2017 announced that they had reached two billion users.

The platforms are now crowded and to please their shareholders the algorithms within Facebook changed making it more difficult for business related posts to show up in peoples social feed unless you pay for your posting to be promoted.

If you are a leader you need to be fully aware if the changes that are happening in the business  world and in society in general.

The world is constantly changing and good leaders react to those changes yet great leaders anticipate those changes and adapt accordingly.

While we may not know what the future holds for any of us we do however know what’s happened in the past. If as leaders we can review the past and we will find valuable lessons that will help us define our future.

Feedback:  maraia.vula@fijisun.com.fj