There's a Fortune in Failure
Part 1
by Dr. Gary Bradt
Page: 1 2
It took Thomas Edison over a thousand tries to get the light bulb just right. Yet how many of us give up if we don't nail something perfectly the first time out? The best baseball hitters in the game fail approximately two out of every three times they step up to the plate. Still, how many of us won't step up and try something new unless we can be assured of success first? The problem is how we think about ourselves in relation to failure and its consequences. In this article, I'm going to challenge you to change the way you think about failure, and, in the process, change the way you think about yourself.
Failure can be the fast track to success if you recognize and use it the right way. It's all in how you choose to size it up. Following are five ways to think about failure, and how to manage it. Embracing these concepts will help insure your long-term success in all of your endeavors, both in business and in life.
1. Define failure as learning. When a toddler falls down, do we say, "Man, they really messed up!" or rather "Wonderful, they're learning to walk!" Yet when we fall down - blow the sales pitch, get passed over for promotion, lose our jobs, for example - often we exclaim, "I failed!" Worse yet, we may define ourselves as failures. Better to view failure as a temporary and necessary step on the way to where you want to be.
Just like falling down is a predictable and inevitable process for the toddler learning to walk, so too are occasional failures along the way to success in whatever you attempt. In fact, it's hard to improve if you don't fail, because failure delineates clearly where the opportunities for improvement lie. So, when you do fall down, don't label yourself a failure. Instead, recover quickly from the temporary disappointment by asking "What can I learn from this? What worked and what didn't? How can I do it better next time?" Then, follow the toddler's example: get up with a smile on your face and try again, knowing you are better for the experience.
2. Manage expectations, yours and theirs. Sometimes the problem with failure lies in unrealistic expectations when trying something new. We expect everyone to embrace the new strategy after a single roll out meeting. We expect the new model-year car to perform as well as the old one that hadn't changed for several years. We assume customers will flock to our latest and greatest product immediately. Rarely, however, are such scenarios the case. John Kotter tells us leaders exponentially under-communicate the need for change. Newly revised product lines often have bugs, and wary customers often have to be convinced over time that what we offer meets their needs and interests.
Perception about failure on the back end can be reduced or eliminated by managing expectations on the front-end. Begin new ventures with optimism tempered by realism, and help your constituents - colleagues and customers - do the same. Anticipate there will be problems, and let everyone know you will be ready to solve them. That way, when problems do arise, they will help reinforce your credibility versus damage it. And, problems won't lead you and others to assume you've failed. Rather, problems will be viewed for what they are - road signs pointing the way to progress.

Dr. Gary Bradt is a change and leadership expert, speaker and author of The Ring in the Rubble: Dig Through Change and Find Your Next Golden Opportunity (The Ring in the Rubble). His diverse client base includes IBM, FedEx, General Motors, American Express, Marriott International, The Weather Channel, The Department of Defense, and NASA. For many years he was endorsed by Spencer Johnson as the primary speaker worldwide on Johnson's business bestseller Who Moved my Cheese? He resides in Summerfield, North Carolina with his wife and two children.
Page: 1 2