Forgive Failure
“Success is the ability to go from one failure to another with no loss of enthusiasm.”[1] – Winston Churchill
How often do we as leaders deal with the reality of failure? To achieve success failure is inevitable. While many leaders know this is true there remains a challenge as to how to deal with failure within an organization. For the past few weeks we have read books on how to deal with anxiety, listening to the voices within an organization, improving emotional intelligence and now how to be an open leader. Charlene Li in her book Open Leadership asserts that “to be an open leader you need to have the self-awareness and humility to know your limits and, similarly, to know the role that failure has played in your success.”[2] Failure has a definite role to play in success. In the end of her first chapter, she discusses the five new rules of open leadership:
- Respect that your customers and employees have power
- Share constantly to build trust
- Nurture curiosity and humility
- Hold openness accountable
- Forgive failure
What does it mean to forgive failure? Furthermore, how do we as leaders embrace the Winston Churchill quote in the areas where we lead? It is not so much about just accepting failure but it is being present in acknowledging that it happens and understanding why it happens. In Chapter 9, Li offers four ways that an open leader can ensure that an organization remains resilient and learns from failure:
- Acknowledge That Failure Happens– I can honestly admit failure can be tough to process and deal with. Depending on how your organization is set up the appetite for risk and failure may not be as great as the pressure to be accomplished and successful. Acknowledging that failure occurred is a huge step to being able to understand and learn from what took place.
- Encourage Dialog to Foster Trust- I have found that many leaders struggle to talk about failure within their organizations let alone their customer base. I can recall one of our leadership team meetings our senior director took the time to talk about failure. He began to describe openly areas where he had failed and how we can become resilient despite of it. It was a shock to me because he had never taken that approach before. His transparency and genuine approach was well received. It connected us as a team. We still have a ways to go in creating a sustainable environment that is willing and open to empower their employees to take risks but we are moving in that direction.
- Separate the Person from the Failure- One of the key things she noted in this discussion was the fact that not everyone is sincere, competent and resilient. While these may be core characteristics to assess failure and a person’s intentions, it is important to determine if someone lacks the ability to be successful in their job. If so, they may need to be empowered by being moved into a role where they can be successful. In the same vain, maybe the person needs to be let go. Either decision requires careful decisioning. I have experienced working in organizations where people are failing not because they are taking great risks but because of their deficiency in their skillset to fulfill the role. As an open leader we must be aware of where people are struggling and why, in order to ensure the health and stability of the organization we are serving.
- Learn from the mistakes – Learning from our mistakes is something we must do in all areas of our lives. Going back to what I stated in the beginning, we must not only acknowledge our failures but also understand them. It is in our understanding that we figure out how we failed. It is also an opportunity to shift and to change the course we are on to go in a new direction. Stubbornness and pride will only keep us from going forward. Being in the industry that I work in it can be severely detrimental to the lives of others in moments of failure. The recovery has downstream impacts that can be hard for clients to forgive. Finding the balance between our appetite for risks and our ability to continue to grow and thrive is a major challenge. Over time, I have seen a slow but steady shift. I am optimistic that while failure is tough, we must be willing and open to experience it to surpass it on the path to success. I like the motto that Google had adopted “fail fast, fail smart” [3]
Failure cannot be avoided. There will be times that things just go wrong. I share these same sentiments as Charlene shared with us in her conclusion of Chapter 9 “Failures are never easy, but I hope you weather your fair share of them well on the road to greater openness and success.”[4]
[1] Charlene Li, Open leadership: how social technology can transform the way you lead (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2010), Location 3323.
[2] Ibid, Location 3338.
[3] Ibid, Location 3349
[4] Ibid, Location 3690
About the Author
Christal Jenkins Tanks
5 responses to “Forgive Failure”
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Christal, what a powerful post! Thanks for your analysis and also for putting forth the concept and importance of forgiveness for failure. Mary highlighted this point as well in her post. If we start with forgiveness at the top it will impact the whole organization. It reminds me of Friedman’s “power of presence.” If the leader sets the tone, the presnce of forgiveness can be felt throughout the whole organization. Thanks Christal.
Very beautifully put together, Christal!
“Acknowledging that failure occurred is a huge step to being able to understand and learn from what took place.” One of the hardest things for pastors/elders to do is to admit failure. I think that some truly believe that they need to hide their failures so that the congregation does not lose confidence in them. If they only would realize that opening up and admitting failure would probably give the people more trust in them!
I also appreciated what Charlene Li said about how to deal with the ‘failing’ employee. You pointed out that the leader needs to take time and get to really know what the problem is. Yes, it’s hard. Investing time in the employee and finding out what the best solution for everybody takes time and humility. I always appreciate the balance that you bring to your posts, Christal!!
“Separate the Person from the Failure”
Wow. I wonder if I have ever seen this happen in a church setting, or even in the educational setting. It feels like blame is usually planted squarely on one back, without assessing whether the person has been given the support and tools to succeed and whether or not that person should even be in the particular role.
You (and Li) make a good point about distinguishing why failure occurs, whether because someone took a risk and it didn’t work or if they were not equipped with the right skill set for the responsibility. This harkens back to Collins’ challenge to make sure the right people are on the bus, and in the seats that best suit them. This perspective seems like it might fit well with our understanding of both grace and discipleship/maturation in Christ.
Many leadership books take this same approach on the topic of “failure.” The idea is that, if an employee learns from the failure, that loss (often financial) can be seen as an investment.
Churches may or may not follow this. Some churches give their staff a lot of grace and coaching. Others function as high-pressure organizations with a lot of turnover because of burnout or frequent firings. I believe that OPEN LEADERSHIP has a lot of wisdom for churches.