“Fun, education, faith and “Four ways leaders can learn from failure”
I always try to remind my Kellogg students and business leaders in my classes and presentations of the importance of “Life Balance”, rather than “work life balance”, which sounds like you’re either working or living.
I had the opportunity to participate in several aspects of life balance this week.
First, I was lucky to drive down to the University of Illinois in Champaign with several friends to attend a concert of one of my very favorite bands, “Sugarland”. Jennifer Nettles and Kristian Bush were fantastic. Okay, I will admit that “ stuck like glue” is one of my favorite songs, so I will include a link here:
I had the chance to meet Kristian after the show who is a very special fellow.
Second, I attended a portion of the annual NACD meeting in Maryland with Greg Hedges and the Chicago chapter team and gave several talks. The meeting includes many topics of critical importance to current and future board members.
Third, I was invited by my good friend Mike Z to participate in a wonderful Christian seminar near Savannah! It is very special to share experiences with others regarding our faith and religious beliefs
Here’s a link to my latest Forbes article and the entire article is shown below:
4 Ways Leaders Can Learn From Failure And Avoid Complacency
In a world of rapid change, the faster things move, the greater the likelihood of failure. As a result, new leaders may hesitate to step up, finding it difficult to take on the risks that come from not only reacting to change but also creating it. As McKinsey observed, “Human nature being what it is, risk aversion (even fear) will rule people’s actions if they don’t actually believe it’s safe to fail.”
Failure that stems from experimentation and innovation should not be feared. Instead, leaders must create the conditions that encourage a growth mindset and help prevent complacency and reluctance to be a catalyst for change.
This thinking applies not only organizationally but also in our own careers. Just recently, one of my MBA students told me he had agreed to switch divisions at his company. After accepting the assignment, however, he was having second thoughts and voiced concerns about whether he will be successful in the new role. “The people I’m working with now have a lot more knowledge than I do,” he told me. “It just seems like I could fail at this.”
My advice was to trust himself. There was a reason he was chosen for this new role, and the leadership skills he brings to this new assignment are more important than the specifics of how the division operates. He needed to keep his sights on the bigger picture. As I explained to him, “You’ve got a great career. What’s the worst thing that could possibly happen? If this new role is not a fit for you, you could always go back and do what you were doing before.”
This is the kind of permission that leaders need to give themselves and their teams when attempting the new and different. It’s striking a balance: minimizing the impact of failure, while also maximizing the lessons to be learned.
Learning From Failure
For leaders today, it is essential to foster a healthy environment that encourages greater innovation, whether that involves shifting global supply chains or implementing an AI strategy that makes sense for humans.
Here are four perspectives that can help:
1. Expect Setbacks.
Of course, no one should go into a product rollout, business expansion or acquisition expecting to fail. However, some setbacks, delays and obstacles should be expected. As a young leader, I learned this lesson from William Graham, the long-time CEO of Baxter International, where I spent more than two decades of my career and eventually became chair and CEO. Mr. Graham acknowledged that failure was part of growth, but emphasized two important points: “First, when you fail, make sure you learn a lot, so you don’t repeat that failure. Second, when you fail, try to fail early.”
2. Set Meaningful Objectives.
There are many ways to apply Mr. Graham’s advice about learning from failure and as quickly as possible. One example is setting month-to-month plans with specific objectives to be met. Let’s say a new initiative will require an investment of $10 million a month, for a total of $120 million for the year. As the plan is implemented, the first $10 million and the first month pass quickly with nothing to show for it. Two more months and an additional $20 million yield only more delays. With the project behind its target, executives face two choices. The first is to keep hoping for a turnaround, while burning through $10 million every month. However, the greater the losses and the longer progress is delayed, the more difficult it becomes to turn things around.
In the second and more proactive scenario, parameters are established for what should be accomplished each month. Month to month, the reasons for delays are identified and understood. After three months and $30 million, a decision is made. Based on the results thus far, the initiative might be terminated and the remaining $90 million allocated elsewhere. However, it is also possible that so much has been learned from the initial failures, there is now more confidence that the project will succeed. The decision could be made to double the rate of investment, accelerate the project and launch by September instead of year-end.
3. Build Personal Resilience.
Facing failures can be a humbling experience, opening the door to self-doubt. That’s why true self-confidence, one of my principles of values-based leadership, is crucial to reinforcing resilience. True self-confidence is an inner quality that allows you to see and accept yourself exactly as you are, recognizing both your unique strengths and your shortcomings. Over time, true self-confidence will help you persevere through the inevitable setbacks without undermining your future.
True self-confidence also helps you as a leader. You recognize your own strengths while also valuing others who have expertise in areas where you do not have the knowledge. Years ago, when I was president of Baxter, one of my best finance managers told me he had been approached to become a division president. He wanted my advice because he was concerned that his experience was limited to finance. How could he lead a division? “No one is born a general manager,” I explained to him. “Everyone starts out in a function.” With true self-confidence in his financial acumen, he recognized the expertise he brought to the division, while relying on others and their knowledge to help address specific issues and challenges.
4. Reflect Instead of Finding Blame.
All of us face setbacks of one sort or another. A promotion you wanted may not come through, or someone else will get the job even though you thought you were the most qualified candidate. You may get laid off or even fired. When upsets happen, the best course of action is to identify the lessons these experiences contain. Unfortunately, many people do the opposite: they immediately sink into self-pity and the blame game. They tell themselves and anyone else who will listen, “I worked hard and should have been promoted,” or “I never should have been the one who was fired.”
This is where self-reflection, my foundational principle of values-based leadership, can help immensely. Ask yourself: Were you trying to do the right thing and were you doing the best you could in the time you had? What could you have done differently? With these insights, the outcome of being fired or losing out on a promotion, though disappointing, will not adversely affect your ability to move forward. In fact, with self-reflection, there is nothing that you cannot face with courage, dignity, integrity and optimism.
Some initiatives, projects and experiments will face obstacles, and some will fail right out of the gate. What matters is what we do next. It’s a process of trying, failing, adjusting and moving on. For new leaders, that’s how failure becomes learning, and learning leads to improvement.
A critical topic right now. The federal government is always a bit perplexing; but it is impacting municipal government, too.…