Failure
I used to work in a place. It was a lovely place, full of really lovely people who cared a lot about what they did.
Sadly, the place was run by people who were terrified of failure. While this fear is entirely understandable, human and relatable, it is your response to that fear that makes the difference between running a great organisation, full of learning, growth and support for each other - or a toxic one, full of blame and isolation...where vulnerability is scary and an invitation for criticism rather than support and elevation.
Really sadly, this place isn't alone. There are too many organisations where the fear of failure creates icicles in the corridors and boardrooms.
I trained as a Coach to ensure that Every Single One of my clients goes about their lives knowing their worth. Knowing that the learning they've taken from mistakes, accidents or bad choices* are what make them brilliant and insightful team members.
?I trained as a Coach to support leaders in being compassionate - to themselves and their teams - brave in acknowledging where things haven't gone right, and open to new ideas about how to move forward.
To the lovely people who work in the places where failure is the end of the story, rather than the beginning: I'm here and ready to listen. You are enough and you deserve more.
*Props to Mrs Woodward, my kids' nursery teacher for this phrase. Choices matter, learning from the consequences of those choices matters even more.
What I'm dancing to this week: Taylor's 'I can do it with a broken heart'. It's a banger and gives me Recovering People Pleaser vibes.
Strategy, Leadership Development and Leadership Coaching; 25 Years Media and Strategy Leadership; Experienced Media Portfolio MD
10 个月Great post Emma. I've often found that leaders talk a good game on failure (ie fail fast, failure is necessary for learning etc), but it certainly hasn't felt like that when things have gone wrong. I think compassion sits at the heart of this and an understanding of a) whether people feel they've done their best and if not, why might that be b) do people understand why something has failed and what have they learned from it c) what do they do next? There must be some metric as well that demonstrates that things are more likely to fail than succeed? Now you've got me thinking...!