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Dealing with failure: why ostriches shouldn't be kept in white enclosures.

Writer's picture: DavyDavy

Success is awesome!


Don’t you love the feeling when you come up with an ambitious plan, you get people motivated to work along, you put in some good ol’ elbow grease and jointly reach your target. More than enough reason for a celebration – even though we definitely don’t celebrate success enough!


However, unless you are Leslie Nielsen, there is no such thing as “always successful”.

It is inevitable that from time to time you fail. From dropping your steaming hot omelette in your lap to dropping some database tables from a production environment, the possibilities to screw up are endless! Luckily, failure is something we all have to deal with and is in fact an excellent opportunity to learn and grow. Next time you attempt to do a Cirque-du-Soleil-inspired omelette flip, I’m sure you will be wearing appropriate protective clothing…


But if failure is so normal and it’s actually helping us to improve ourselves, why is it so often still a taboo to talk about?


There are multiple reasons for this, but our (often fragile) ego’s definitely play a big role. Admitting you have made a mistake can be wrongfully (!) seen as a sign of weakness, which we don’t want to share with the world. Combine such an attitude with being in a position of power, and you start polluting the working culture of your team and don’t leave room for reflection and growth from mistakes. Putting your head in the sand like an ostrich does not make problems disappear though..


That’s why we are convinced that there is an urgent need to change the perception and treatment of failure₍₁₎. Why not dedicate a specific moment in team gatherings to not only highlight successes, but also talk about some things that did not go well? Especially as a leader, you should not underestimate the powerful signal that you are giving when you own up to failure, openly talk about it and start looking ahead. This way, talking about failure can be flipped from being a sign of weakness, to a sign of strength and confidence!


So in light of this theory, assume you are in one of the most influential positions in the world. In that case we would strongly recommend admitting to failure and that way avoid creating 70.294.340 additional ostriches, Donald.

Want to know more on how to practically deal with failure within your team and experience the immediate positive effect of owning up to failure, or are you looking for other crucial business topics training? Send an email to info@tiltlearning.com or snoop around on the website at www.tiltlearning.com!

 

₍₁₎ When talking about failure in this article, we always assume there was a positive intent involved in the action. If you deliberately mess up your responsibilities, it does not make a lot of sense to talk about “learning and growing” in that context.

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