The Real Test of a Leader – “We Admit, We’ve Been Wrong. We Apologize.”

To our customers,


At Apple, we strive to make world-class products that deliver the best experience possible to our customers. With the launch of our new Maps last week, we fell short on this commitment. We are extremely sorry for the frustration this has caused our customers and we are doing everything we can to make Maps better.
Tim Cook
Apple’s CEO
(Read his full letter here).

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This is short and to the point.

Is it possible for an organization to be wrong about something?
Is it possible for an organization to not even see/recognize that they have been wrong?
Is it possible for an organization to know they have been wrong, but be too obstinate (or dishonest) to admit it?

If you do not understand that the answer to each of these questions is “yes,” then quit reading.  You are a hopeless case, and I hope you are not the leader of any organization that matters to me, or the people I care about.

If the answer is yes, then it seems to me that the real test of a leader of an organization is to be able to say:  “We’ve been wrong about something.  We apologize.  And we are going to fix it.”