Keld Jensen, Forbes.com

Success is easy to deal with, but how well do you handle your mistakes? Do you embrace them as opportunities to showcase your leadership skills, or do you shy away and look to cover up your flaws?

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One of my earliest, most memorable mistakes happened when I was twelve years old. Metal work was one of my least favorite subjects at school, and one of the worst projects we had to do was create a metal sculpture of a man. We had an example to draw from, and the idea was that after ten weeks of class we’d all have created something similar to what the teacher had shown us.

So, week ten arrives and I am in the final stages of the project, just fixing a few details with a hammer, when I accidentally knock the sculpture’s head off. Instantly filled with panic, I decide the best thing to do is to switch my project with a friend’s while he’s away from his worktable.

As you can imagine, my friend was shocked when he returned. He then told the teacher, who stopped the whole class. Parents began to show up, but no one was allowed to leave until the perpetrator owned up. Only after much time had passed and the guilt became overwhelming did I put my hand up in front of the whole class (and several parents) and accept my punishment: two weeks of detention.

Looking back, I realize how childish it was to try and cover up my error. It would have been far easier (and less embarrassing) to have brought my broken sculpture up to the teacher right away rather than hide it. I was lucky to learn this lesson early in my life, before venturing into the business world.

Just as in my experience in school, it is difficult for most adults to “own up” to mistakes in the workplace. Whether you are a front-line employee or the president of the country, have messed up a small project or are behind a billion-dollar financial scandal like the ongoing one at Barclays bank, the ego instinctually tries to cover up or ignore mistakes, putting up defensive walls, and deflecting failure to someone or something else.

The key to overcoming the tendency to cover up our flaws, weaknesses, and mistakes is to understand that doing so is a moral failure that typically exacerbates the problem. Beyond the error, your unwillingness to own up actually decreases your personal credibility and trust with others, contrary to the belief of many political and business leaders.

Coming clean, admitting both the bad and the ugly, takes courage: a characteristic of quality leadership. By embracing humility, trust can be built, or rebuilt, both on personal and organizational levels. Domino’s Pizza CEO Patrick Doyle provided a perfect example of this, admitting in a national TV campaign that his pizzas were not up to par. He made no excuses, vowed to do better, and the public response was incredibly positive.

Admitting your errors also invites others to do the same, which contributes to the creation of a healthy work environment. You can help foster this authenticity, even when the mistake is not your own. When others admit fault, forgive them for the things they’ve done, and do not rush to judgment. Separate the person from the mistake. Give them a chance to explain or make amends.

Lastly, when the error is your own, go beyond just admitting your fault. As Patrick Doyle did with Domino’s, let people know what you are going to do differently next time, and rebuild trust by making sure your actions follow through. Keep agreements with yourself, as they are just as important as the ones with others.

While most people have the greatest pride in their successes, the best leaders understand that it’s how they handle their biggest mistakes that truly define them. The next time you find yourself as the cause of a workplace screw-up, do not shy away from it. Put aside your ego, admit your mistake, apologize, and follow through with action to fix it. Instead of running away, embrace the situation as an opportunity to show how great you really are.