领导力内部网络是一个在线社区，商界最具思想和影响力的人物会在这里及时回答关于职业生涯和领导力的问题。今天的问题是：在犯下大错后如何反弹？回答者是Veeam的联合创始人拉特米尔·迪马舍夫。

每位企业家在开始职业生涯时，都有其强项和劣势。我带着科学专业的背景进入了技术领域，所以总是比一般的经理更注重产品开发和满足客户需求。在这20多年来，我发现自己需要开拓视野，培养领导公司所必须的其他商业和管理技能——但如果没有早期犯下的一些错误，我也无法培养出这些能力。

成立Aelita Software时，我犯下了许多用人错误。创立公司时的一个合作伙伴比我们其他人的贡献都要少很多，但我们过了很久才决定把他抛开。我们还在招聘销售主管时犯下了大错，在很短时间内换了很多人选。每次招聘，情况都稍好一些，但我们最终为那些被严重高估的员工付出了太多薪水。

我从这次经历中得到的教训，就是果断止损。我们花了几年来解决这些问题。我后来采用了“慢点招人，快点解聘”的策略，并意识到只要合适的人到位，领导者就可以在提出很高要求的同时信任他们放手去干。

从这些早期的错误中反弹，其中涉及到两个关键的决定。首先在于专注我的优势。我拥有技术背景，而不是商业背景，所以对我来说，在产品研发上加倍努力是很自然的事情。我认为这在与顾客携手合作上至关重要，我们可以进行许多改进和升级，直到公司找到可以吸引广大受众的特色。我花了很多时间在国内行走，会见客户，确定具体问题，并将反馈建议整合到我们的产品中。

另一个决定是从可以学习的人那里寻求指点。最后，在我认识的某个风险投资家的指导下，我成功成长为了一名商业领袖。我们在各自的岗位上都属于年轻人，这让我们很有共同话题。我需要培养的领导技能：团队建设、招聘、管理人格、销售发展，都是他擅长的领域。

我们的公司换过许多销售主管，他们的成果都乏善可陈。这位风险投资家告诉我如何鉴定人才，让他们融入企业文化，放手发挥，不过如果他们不能满足公司的目标，也要果断替换。这种思路让我打造了适合公司的团队，我们在技术界一个停滞不前的领域猛然崛起，重新定义了这个领域。

在犯错后反弹的最好办法就是承认它，从中学习，并寻找帮助避免下次再犯。不要在犯错之后裹足不前，这点也很重要。我寻求了风险投资家的建议，并最终从他身上学到了很多，如果我故步自封，就根本做不到这样。

我也在加倍努力发扬自己的长处，招聘技能上与我互补的优秀员工，深入产品研发，与客户进行广泛交流，彻底了解他们的痛点以及最好的解决方案。最后，我成为了高效的领袖，拥有了发展公司，跨越错误的所需技能。（财富中文网）

译者：严匡正

The Leadership Insiders network is an online community where the most thoughtful and influential people in business contribute answers to timely questions about careers and leadership. Today’s answer to the question, “How can you bounce back after making a major mistake?” is written by Ratmir Timashev, co-founder of Veeam.

Every entrepreneur starts their career with strengths and weaknesses. I started out in tech with a science background and was always more focused on product development and meeting customer needs than being a typical manager. Over the course of 20 years, I have recognized a need to expand my view and develop other skills critical to the business and managerial aspects of leading a company—but those abilities weren’t developed without some early mistakes.

When I founded Aelita Software, many of my miscues were personnel decisions. One of our founding partners contributed far less to the company than the rest of us did, yet we procrastinated on moving on from him. We also made major mistakes in hiring for our head sales role, going through several executives in a short period of time. With each hire, things got a little bit better, but ultimately we were overpaying for employees that were severely under-delivering.

The lesson I took away from this experience is to cut losses sooner rather than later. It took years to resolve these errors. I adopted the “hire slow, fire fast” mantra and learned that when the right people are in place, a leader can simultaneously be demanding and trusting of their employees.

Bouncing back from these early mistakes involved two key decisions. The first was to focus on my strengths. I came from a technical background, not a business one, so it was natural for me to redouble my efforts in product development. I believed it was critical to work hand-in-hand with customers, going through many revisions and updates until the company found something that was appealing to a mass audience. I spent much of my time traveling around the country and meeting with customers to identify specific problems and incorporate the feedback into our product.

The other decision was to seek the guidance of someone from whom I could learn. Ultimately, I developed as a business leader under the mentorship of a venture capitalist I knew. We were both on the younger side for our positions, which made us a strong match. The leadership skills I needed to develop—team building, hiring, managing personalities, and sales development—were all in his areas of expertise.

Our company had gone through many different sales managers, all with underwhelming results. The VC taught me how to identify talent and integrate it into a company culture that gave managers latitude to hit results, but was quick to move on from managers that couldn't achieve our goals. This mentality helped me build the type of team that matched what our company—an upstart competitor out to redefine a moribund sector of the tech world.

The best formula to bounce back from a mistake is to acknowledge it, learn from it, and seek help on how to avoid it next time. It’s also critical not to freeze after making an error. I sought out the VC’s advice and ultimately learned a great deal from him, which I never could have done had I remained standing still.

I also worked twice as hard at playing to my strengths, hiring excellent people with skills that complemented mine, diving deep into product development, and talking extensively with our customers to fully understand their pain points and how best to solve them. As a result, I was able to become an effective leader with the skills I needed to develop my business and move beyond my mistakes.