When Everyone Leads - Embrace Failure

You have a choice. You can accept the status quo or you can step up and become the leader you are looking for.

Stop waiting and start leading. Leadership is not bestowed. It is not a title. It is earned through action and example.

“Leadership is not about titles, positions or flowcharts. It is about one life influencing another.”

~ John C. Maxwell ~

This series of articles is not about what your leaders need to do to turn you into a leader. This series is about what you can do for yourself to become a leader in your own right. Wherever you sit within an organisation, you can lead.

Magic happens when everyone leads.

Embrace the setbacks

When we try something different, the chances are we will have setbacks. We have to have no fear about those setbacks. They are part of the growth process.

if you are not making mistakes, you are not trying hard enough.

The greatest leaders have suffered setbacks. They know that they cannot learn unless they fail, and they cannot succeed without impediment.

Give yourself permission to fail. It will energise you.

Change the language

When you are pursuing leadership, or trying anything new, you need to redefine failure as a setback and not a failure. Every setback is movement in the right direction. With every setback you are one step closer to success.

We have choice to reframe the setback as an opportunity to learn and grow as a result of the experience.

Consider the outcomes

Many people have fear of failure because they fear the unknown. You can remove that fear by considering all of the potential outcomes of your actions. 

Ask what could be the worse case scenario. Is someone going to die? The worst case is most likely not as bad as the fear you had in regard to the unknown.

As Thomas Edison is quoted as saying: “I have not failed. I have found 10,000 ways that won’t work”.

The power of not yet

Learning to lead, as with learning anything worthwhile for the first time, is hard. At times you may feel overwhelmed by the enormity of the task you have undertaken.

In my last article “When Everyone Leads - Growth Mindset” I introduce you to the work of Carol Dweck and the concept of a growth mindset over a fixed mindset.

Carol Dweck also talks about ‘the power of not yet.’

In her TED talk, “The Power of Believing You Can Improve”, she describes a school in Chicago with an unorthodox and progressive approach to student assessment. Students are expected to pass a certain number of classes to graduate, but in the event that they do not pass they are simply awarded the alternative grade of “Not Yet”.

She explains the power of “Not Yet” in the following way:

“If you get a failing grade, you think, I’m nothing, I’m nowhere. But if you get the grade “Not Yet” you understand that you’re on a learning curve. It gives you a path into the future.”

When you have a fixed mindset you are operating from the “now.” When you have a growth mindset you are operating from the “Not Yet”.

The “Power of Yet” or of a growth mindset is the belief that you can improve. If you do not (yet) know how to lead, you can learn.

The Not Yet mentality will change the way you think. When you push yourself out of your comfort zone to learn something new and difficult, the neurons in your brain start building new and stronger connections processing the resistance, correcting and learning from it.

Summary

So next time you hear yourself saying “I can’t”, change it to “I can’t, yet”, and then face the leadership challenge head on. 

By applying yourself and gaining experience, change is possible.

Hang on in there and push yourself through, even when the going gets tough.

Being able to hang in and push yourself through, even when the going gets tough, is what the growth mindset and ‘not yet’ is all about. It is this approach, as well as being open to what is possible, that will allow to thrive through what may seem like the most difficult challenges.