John Eades* says it is inevitable we will fail from time to time during our careers but it’s how we deal with it that counts.
As lovely as it would be to have a smooth, easy path to success as a leader, failure is an inevitable part of the process.
The stories of some of the great leaders of all time are filled with more failures than success.
Take Abraham Lincoln, for example; he was defeated or rejected from public office seven times before being elected as the President of the United States at age 51.
A combination of his determination and the ability to learn from earlier failures was the key to his eventual success as a leader.
Henry Ford famously said: “Failure is simply the opportunity to begin again, this time more intelligently.”
Regardless of how long you have been leading, failure is going to happen.
However, if you use failure as feedback, you create an opportunity to learn and make improvements for the future.
Here are a few of the guaranteed failures all leaders will make at some point in their journey.
Waiting too long to change:
Most leaders tend to get comfortable with their current systems and practices, especially if they have brought good results in the past.
Unfortunately, this can leave your team or organisation less equipped to adapt to an ever-changing marketplace.
As businessman and political donor, Charles Koch said: “Too many leaders of companies are short-term oriented versus long-term oriented.”
Leaders should always be looking long-term especially in the area of innovation.
During a recent email exchange on innovation, Chief Executive of the Webmetrix Group, Imran Tariq wrote to me: “Business leaders need to develop an agile mindset, especially in the digital age.
Being slow to change can be costly, but failing to change at all will prove fatal.”
Older methods of creating revenue and implementing new learning solutions still work, but the signs of change are written on the wall.
It’s no different in your industry or with your team — it just comes down to how open you are to change.
Handling a situation with a team member poorly:
It doesn’t matter how long you have been leading a team, at some point, you will lie in bed at night wishing you had handled a situation with a team member differently.
It could be the words you chose to use, the emotions you showed in a particular moment, or the lack of empathy.
No leader is perfect, and mistakes are just part of the job.
How you learn from those mistakes is what will separate you from others.
Get in the habit of writing down the mistakes you make in particular situations and reviewing them every month.
Look for opportunities to apply those lessons in future interactions with team members.
Bad hires:
Even if you have an intensive process in place for vetting potential hires, you never know if someone will live up to expectations until they have actually joined your team.
No matter how good of a judge you may think you are, every business leader will make a bad hire at some point.
Even when hiring for low-level positions, a single bad hire can prove extremely costly.
The consequences aren’t strictly financial. They take a toll on you emotionally.
I made multiple bad hires in my days leading a company, and it’s hard not to take it personally.
You not only are putting the person you have hired in a bad position, but it’s also difficult for other members of your team to pick up the slack of team members who leave.
As painful as a bad hire can be, this can present a valuable learning experience that helps you hire better in the future.
Just keep in mind this quote from author and motivational speaker, Simon Sinek, which has become my guide.
“You don’t hire for skills, you hire for attitude. You can always teach skills.”
Yes, failure can be frustrating.
It can lead to significant financial losses, and possibly even the end of a current business endeavour.
However, remember that failure isn’t final. Failure is feedback.
*John Eades is the Chief Executive of LearnLoft and author of F.M.L. Standing Out and Being a Leader. He is also the host of the Follow My Lead Podcast. He can be followed on instagram @johngeades.
This article first appeared on John’s LearnLoft blog.
