My awkward photos with Richard Hill, who has endured 2 years of me asking the same questions.

What is our greatest failure?


“What is our greatest failure? I want you to be brutally honest with yourself and with all of us about this. What is that one thing that continues to bug you about our organization and that you most desperately want to fix?”

For the last 2 years and 3 elections, I’ve asked this question over and over and over again to multiple future leaders of Tau Beta Pi at UCLA, a club that I used to lead my junior year of college. At this point, I’m sure that every past leader of Tau Beta Pi expects this question from me and feels some level of frustration when I ask this question.

But I will continue to ask this question year after year because it is a really great way to measure the amount of thought that an individual has put into the decisions of the club’s leadership and put the growth of the club over any personal hubris about our club. As much as I love the club and continue to believe in our ability to deliver an impact to our community, I know that the impact does not increase or even remain level if we do not ask this question of ourselves. It is when we try to identify our deepest weaknesses when we have to truly scour the entirety of our organization’s actions deeply and thoughtfully. And as a result of this same exercise, we can also identify the pillars of our current organization that should continue to form the organization’s roots.

These same strengths and weaknesses are then combined with who we want to be and who we are (from a personnel perspective) to form a strong roadmap for the future of the organization.

Another reason for such an exercise is that when leaders are able to speak so passionately, lovingly, and critically about an organization, they are able to show that they too are willing to be vulnerable, that they understand they are not perfect, and that they too contributed to the weaknesses of the organization but are willingly making a choice to improve. I truly believe this deepens the connection and trust in a leader and increases the potential for affecting change.

Just some random thoughts.