Failure is proving to be a topic that isn’t going to go away on this channel. People seem to have a lot of concerns about it and how to communicate it.
I got an email recently asking for guidance on how to navigate a very large failure by him and his team. They had a big goal that they all set together and they missed in a big way. He wanted to know, how do I communicate the failure and help them understand the weight without making them feel bad or demoralized? I want them to own it, but I want them to focus on improving and learning…not just feeling bad.
It always comes down to you, the leader…you failed. It’s your fault. That is the core source of the problem when you are talking to peers or your leaders. If you aren’t doing that, you aren’t leading. If you are pointing at people individually when asked “what happened” by your boss or execs at your company…you failed your team, your people and ultimately your leaders.
This doesn’t mean you don’t handle the miss and you don’t coach the people involved…especially if the people involved are repeat offenders in missing goals or deadlines. When you are dealing with the team directly, you should be laying out a path for learning and growth out of the failure and then individually pushing those that dropped the ball to improve and grow. Sometimes it might be it’s time for them to move on (I am not saying fire someone on their first mistake because of a big failure), maybe they just need a little push or coaching.
There are a lot of ways failure can pan out depending on how healthy your company is, but at the end of the day, any companies doing anything of value are taking risks every single day. Failing, learning and moving forward are signs of a healthy, impactful team. Keep pushing and keep learning from those failures and you will come out the other side better for it!
I hope this was helpful, thanks for being here! Take care!
