Chapter 7: Dealing with Significant Failure for Which You Are Responsible

Overview

The following paradox is at the heart of this passage: If you’ve never failed as a leader, you’ll never be very successful. The best, most accomplished CEOs almost always have at least one significant failure on their résumé. The CEOs who fail spectacularly—who place wrong strategic bets, invest in growth channels that don’t develop, mislead analysts and investors—are often leaders who have never failed before. As Richard Branson, chairman of Virgin Atlantic has said, “The best developer of a leader is failure.”

Some executives are adept at avoiding this passage. They only take jobs for which they’re qualified and avoid risks in whatever jobs they hold. They “manage upward” well and are able to advance because of their competence. They can advance only so far, however, before their lack of resiliency, adaptability, and perseverance—all traits acquired in this passage—precludes them for higher-level leadership positions. Eventually, they find themselves in situations where they make serious errors of judgment because of their failure-free background. If you’ll recall our earlier matrix in Chapter One outlining the importance of adversity and diversity in both career and life, these are the individuals who don’t value diversity of experience.

If you want to increase your success rate, double your failure rate.

Thomas Watson Sr.

Other executives take risks and experience significant failure, but they aren’t open to the learning it holds. They’ve gone through this passage with their minds closed and don’t benefit from its lessons. They deny their own responsibility for the failure, blaming everyone else and never thinking about what they might learn from their mistakes. Invariably, they will make the same mistakes again.

There are also very smart, skilled leaders who allow failure to define them. Rather than being open to the learning of this passage, they close themselves off because they are devastated by their mistakes. They are convinced that their careers are ruined and that they lack the stuff of which true leaders are made. Instead of seeing their failure as a result of a given set of circumstances, they personalize it and see themselves as failures.

As a passage, significant failure can be complex, prompting a number of counterproductive actions. To help you turn this passage into a leadership development experience, you need to unravel this complexity and see failure for what it really is.