Would you trust a leader who had never experienced failure?
Although none of us likes to fail, mature leaders understand that failure teaches us things that are very difficult to learn any other way. A leader who has never failed does not know his or her current limits or how to lead self and others through recovery.
When crisis strikes, it often blasts a crater in our plans. At first, we can’t see how to get to our vision, because the failure or setback has blocked the path we were counting on using.
That’s why experienced leaders are sought after. When we say, “I’m looking for someone with experience,” part of what we mean is that they have encountered failure and found a way to overcome.
The failure we fear most…
The failure that leaders fear most is what we might call a Total Loss Scenario, or TLS. In a TLS, the leader experiences something so catastrophic that it breaks him or her down to an elemental level. Examples of a TLS include business collapse, reputational disaster, or being fired or ousted from leadership.
Just before the Great Recession, Sonnenfeld and Ward released a study in Harvard Business Review with some sobering stats on leaders who experienced a TLS event.
In our research—analyzing more than 450 CEO successions between 1988 and 1992 at large, publicly traded companies—we found that only 35% of ousted CEOs returned to an active executive role within two years of departure; 22% stepped back and took only advisory roles, generally counseling smaller organizations or sitting on boards. But 43% effectively ended their careers and went into retirement. - HBR, January 2007
I know exactly what that feels like. In the next few posts, I’m sharing the three pillars that helped me to overcome a devastating crisis in my own career. These are not philosophical ideas or theoretical concepts—they are the actual three pillars that I built our company on and the drivers of new thinking that I use to support my own bridge to excellence.
Let’s start by introducing three hazards that can keep you stuck in crisis mode and prevent you from recovering from failure.
Hazard #1: Avoiding risk
Leaders never have all the information they need to make decisions. At some point, they have to lead the way in making considered and courageous choices that always involve risk. The third hazard that follows crisis and failure is to allow risk to dominate their perspective.
When leaders become risk-averse or risk-avoidant, their vision cannot rise above the problems in front of them. They are pulled into fire-fighting mode full time, and the organization stalls.
The solution is embracing risk.
Hazard #2: Thinking small
The “way of being” that led to the leader’s earlier success was thinking big and envisioning a great future. But crisis and failure shrink our minds and lower our sights. Leaders in crisis mode stop aiming for greatness and settle for survival.
The constriction of thinking extends to the leader’s self-evaluation. In order to avoid disappointment (which would deepen the sense of failure), leaders expect smaller results from themselves and question whether they can be effective or valuable again. This cycle of small-ness is a barrier to the whole organization’s ability to grow.
The solution is expecting results.
Hazard #3: Self-protection
We are hard-wired for self-protection. When you hit your thumb with a hammer, your other hand automatically wraps around it. When you get called out in public, your instinct is to deny or deflect criticism. When you face a major career crisis or failure, your instincts for self-preservation kick in without you thinking about it.
What self-preservation looks like in leadership is withdrawal from key relationships, reduced trust in second- and third-line leaders, and withholding information and plans. But these are not the behaviors that help you succeed. Leaders can easily get stuck in withdrawal that isolates them from the relational resources that would aid recovery.
The solution is pursuing relationships.
The good news is that these hazards can be overcome. My own experience with failure and recovery helped me to rediscover three pillars strong enough to bear the weight of a bridge to excellence.
Each of the pillars is near and dear to my heart and to the soul of the company. Read more about each one helped me.
Embracing Risk
Expecting Results
Pursuing Relationships
