Leadership requires taking chances and making on-the-spot decisions. Often, leaders make the right choice. Sometimes, they blunder.

Francis made such a blunder. In rebuilding his recruiting team, he hired not just one, but two people who ended up being bad hires. Making matters worse, several people, including his boss, advised against hiring them.

Filled with guilt, he ruminated over his “stupid” mistake. This triggered the story-telling mechanisms of his brain to make up frightening yarns as to all the negative impacts this would have. Stephen King himself couldn’t have written a better tale of horror.

The good news was this only went on for a few minutes as he realized that shaming himself wasn’t solving the problem. Instead, he did the next right thing, cleaning up the mistake.

We’re all going to screw up. When this happens, we simply must accept our mistakes, fix what we can, learn what we can, and move on. Guilt is optional.

Mistakes will kill you, if you let them. They can murder serenity, decapitate self-confidence, and eviscerate self-esteem. Every mistake is an opportunity to practice guilt-free leadership.

This gives a whole new meaning to “what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.”