5 Mistakes That Taught Us Everything

Bruce Hammond, CAE

Executive Director/CEO, The Society for Pediatric Research (SPR) and American Pediatric Society (APS); Secretary/Treasurer, Association Forum Board of Directors

About 15 years ago, I started a new role as Director of Marketing & Communications for a national trade association. I was eager to come in and make an impact and saw many opportunities to enhance the organization. So I immediately started making changes to what I assumed everyone on staff would think were enhancements to the marketing & comms work. Unfortunately, I didn’t take into consideration that several of the folks who had been there for many, many years (some as long as 30 years) were completely happy with how things were going and were not all that interested in making changes. I didn’t read the room/understand the situation I was walking into and had a pretty rough first six months as a result. This experience taught me to slow down, assess actual needs before pursuing changes, seek buy-in for any potential improvements I identify, and work as a collaborative teammate as opposed to bulldozing my ideas when starting a new role. This experience was a wakeup call and an important lesson.

Kristine O’Sullivan

Senior Manager, Engagement & Loyalty Marketing, ISACA

I love sharing the story of when I went on a trip to an osteopathic medical school with the president of the AOA and I realized while getting dressed in the hotel that I had packed a pair of capri pants instead of my professional suit pants. It was mortifying but I really leaned into it, pulling my trouser socks up to my knees and pretending I looked fashionable and cool instead of totally bizarre. There’s a “just keep going, this stuff doesn’t actually matter” leadership story stuck in there somewhere.

Beth Hayson, MBA, CAE, CMP

Chief Learning and Publications Officer, American Society for Gastrointestinal Endoscopy (ASGE)

Early in my association career, I accidentally included a member’s office manager in an email to my manager, complaining about the member and their request. The request was something relatively simple, but the person was being overly persistent and emailing me frequently and I must have been frustrated at the time. Lesson learned: Be careful when emailing and replying to all. But more importantly, do not write anything disparaging in an email. Keep everything professional. If you need to have a difficult conversation, have that in person. When you are feeling overwhelmed in writing an email, remove the recipients out of the “To” field which gives you time to think about what you’re writing and to avoid hitting send right away. If possible, sleep on it; otherwise, wait an hour and review before sending.

Christine Saunders

President & Founder, Halmyre

I’ve made the mistake of pushing too hard for a change that I knew my organization should make, such as adopting AI, which was met with resistance from colleagues and leadership halting progress on the initiative. It is important to recognize that, according to frameworks like Myers-Briggs, team members with different perspectives (e.g., intuitors versus sensors) may require additional information or reassurances to feel comfortable with the change. This oversight can lead to missed opportunities for the organization. Additionally, after encountering setbacks with innovative ideas, abandoning them completely can prevent future successes. For example, early in a career at a financial institution, some proposed payment projects were cancelled, leading to frustration and a decision to leave the role. However, these projects were later implemented when conditions were more favorable.

Adrian Hochstadt

Chief Executive Officer, Veterinary Medical Association Executives