Ask yourself: The last time you made a mistake, did you try to bury it or openly learn from it?
No one likes to fail, yet managing failure is the key to success. It’s how we learn to blast through our fear of making mistakes. Bosses, leaders and executives today must inspire their employees to want to learn, take risks and be willing to make mistakes. By providing them with opportunities to build determination, curiosity and resilience—the attributes required for success—employees will learn how to work through failure and become strong team members.
When Failure Occurs, Learn from It
The Human Factor in Projects. Too often, we fall into the trap of bashing the concept or idea behind a project when it fails. In reality, people’s attitudes, abilities and willingness to learn will often make or break a project! Coach your team members (or hire a seasoned coach) to work effectively through conflicts, egos and misperceptions. Provide ongoing interpersonal skill development to ensure your employees are present, listening and building alignment in all conversations.
Conduct Effective Meetings. Meetings can be very boring! Because of this, frequently meetings are the source of mistakes and misperceptions. Train yourself and all of your employees to conduct effective meetings and encourage everyone to participate to reduce the probability of overlooking good ideas or buying into false information.
Understand Why. Qualified assessments give you the ability to manage and coach with a high degree of clarity. These superior tools provide insights into how the person (and team) communicates, works with others, sells, manages projects, etc. While nothing is 100 percent accurate, qualified assessments help bosses manage in an effective manner (and look good doing so!). They clarify why employees (and the team) do what they do. Their accuracy can turn good employees into great ones and help employees turn failures into successes.
What Worked? Instead of looking at results in a black-and-white fashion of success versus failure, objectively review what happened. What worked and what didn’t work? There will always be positive learning moments in any project if you take the time to review. Have your employees do this as a team to learn from one another. This builds awareness, clarifies misperceptions and solidifies a group of individuals into a successful team.
Teach Ethics. Integrity builds our brand and reputation … personally, professionally and as a company. It may seem easier to cut corners and develop great excuses when mistakes are made, because we usually don’t believe anyone will ever know the truth! Instead, train by example: it’s better to admit a mistake and rectify it than constantly create lies to cover up failures. Remember, the truth will eventually be told!
©Jeannette Seibly, 2017
Are you a results producer failing to produce intended results? Are you a leader or executive who needs to fine-tune your management style? Contact Jeannette for a free confidential conversation. She has helped thousands become successful due to her uncanny ability to pinpoint concerns and provide insights on how to be successful.
Jeannette Seibly is laser sharp at identifying the leverage points that will take a business and its team to the next level of performance and success. She has been a business advisor and executive coach for over 24 years; along the way, she’s guided the creation of three millionaires and million-dollar results for employers across the United States and Canada. Also, she is a PXT SelectTM Certified Professional and Authorized Partner. Check out her website, or contact Jeannette for a free confidential conversation.
“A coach has you do what you don’t want to do so you can be successful!” Jeannette Seibly
An administrative assistant hated her new boss—a woman who was her age but made a lot more money than she did. The assistant’s husband suggested she learn from her new boss instead of hating her. With his coaching and her boss’s ability to manage with laser-like effectiveness, the assistant was given a project that she excelled at. The boss (and her husband) congratulated her on a job well done. With this newfound confidence, she enrolled in college courses, was promoted within her company and eventually became the manager of the department. All it took was creating the right career path instead of relying on the normal trial and error used by many bosses to develop good employees into great ones. 
My goal is to provide products and services that build sustainable growth for your company.
Effective leadership requires we balance everyone’s wants and needs. Working with customers (meeting their deadlines, concerns about quality, and sometimes, unrealistic demands), along with the expectations from your team, boss, and board, can create a lot of pressure to make everyone happy. Effective leadership does not need to be stressful when you manage with clarity.
A new commercial Realtor wanted to become very successful. He asked his managing broker what the one secret was that would help him become wealthy. She replied, “Be present.” With that secret, he learned how to listen and worked on clarifying the messages he conveyed verbally and non-verbally to others. As a result, he became one of the top commercial Realtors nationwide.
Millennials have surpassed Generation X as the largest workforce in the United States, and Baby Boomers are retiring at faster rates. As a result, employers are finding they have waited too long before investing in the next generation of leadership! If Millennials are not mentored before they go into senior-level roles, they often will create havoc for employees, customers and business results because they are ill prepared.