There has been a lot of discussion lately about the benefits to organisations and their leaders in opening up and freely admitting to corporate and leadership failures. They say that analysing a failure helps the organisation to learn from mistakes, adopt and implement improvements, and most importantly, demonstrate the organisations’ willingness to be transparent, engendering a culture of trust in the organisation.
At its core, an organisation with a healthy and trusting workplace culture will have a high tolerance for failure and view failure as an opportunity to improve. Perhaps best illustrated by Brene Brown, “there is no innovation and creativity without failing, period.”
So, are successful people, successful because of their failures?
Successful people know that failure is a stepping stone to success, and maintain a positive mindset. They know that success also requires facing adversity, critical thinking, problem solving and perseverance. Mostly they get the job done because they do four things following each failure:
Reflect…
Adjust…
Try Again…
Remain Positive.
This approach ensures that people gain various benefits from each attempt, always seeking ways to change and adapt, paving the way for ultimate success. People who learn from failure do so by acknowledging that failure is a necessary part of success, as “those who dare to fail miserably can achieve greatly.” — John F Kennedy.
With this in mind, let’s be kinder to each other during challenging times.
