“Failure is not an option.”
We’ve all heard this phrase before, haven’t we? Sadly, as a leader I live by this adage way too much. In my best moments I only subject myself to it, and in my worst, I project it onto others that I lead.
For some reason I’ve been thinking about failure lately and I remembered a quote from someone (John Maxwell, I think) that goes something like this:
“Don’t ask, 'What would you attempt if you knew you would not fail?' Instead ask, 'What would you attempt if your view of failure was different?'”
What if we, as leaders, really believed that failure was not the end of the road? What if we really believed that failure was really learning? How much would that allow us to extend grace to ourselves and the people we lead?
I remember some advice that one of my mentors, Jim Sylvester, gave me after I was asked to lead the Cru Summer Project in Ocean City, New Jersey. He told me, “If you’re happy, your people will be happy.” He was saying: Even if things go wrong (and they did that first year and every year since!), don’t let it get to you. If you panic, the people you lead will too. They will follow your lead. But if you are happy, they will be too. As the leader goes, so goes the people.
Please know, I’m not talking about repeated, stupid failure. I’m talking about failure that comes from the result of attempting new things that stretch you and your organization. I’m not talking about “roll the dice and see what happens” type stuff, but about the sort of failure that is normal for most leaders, but at times we avoid because we feel that it will somehow define us or make us look bad in front of others. If your leadership is somewhat characterized by one bad decision after another, you may need to stop embracing failure quite as much.
So, as you take some time to evaluate how things went in your movement over the past few months, don’t get down if things aren’t going as well as you planned. Stay happy and your people will follow your lead.
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