About that decision you made that others viewed as excessive…let us help you. 

I had the opportunity to talk with a senior executive struggling with her relationship with her leader who was constantly correcting minor errors, spending inordinate amounts of time on small details in her project plans, and most recently, her leader took over a cross-functional meeting she was delegated to lead. The reasons for this “hostile takeover” (my words, not hers) were that the materials were not strong and the meeting was high stakes. In short, her leader was engaging in overcorrection.

When a leader responds to a mistake, problem, imbalance, or concern by taking a bold action, seen by many as excessive, and resulting in the creation of new problems, complexities, and issues, we call this an overcorrection.