Permission to Fail

Are your employees scared to fail?

Hopefully no one actually wants to fail but are they scared of it?

Have you fostered (or allowed to continue) an environment where failure is not tolerated? (Hopefully it’s obvious I’m talking about those employees whose positions allow for or expect innovation and change.)

Why?

How will your team ever do great things if they never try…and fail? “Failure is not an option,” simply means that you have to continue to try new things (and fail) until you succeed.

“I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.” - Thomas A. Edison

Is the problem the word “fail?” You can call it a "challenge" or an "opportunity" or whatever fits your vernacular, the important thing is not to fear it.

“I was never afraid of failure; for I would sooner fail than not be among the greatest.” - John Keats

We actually learn very little from our successes but almost everything from our failures. A failure is just a challenge and opportunity to try again…or try something different…and do better (even if it’s to fail better). The key here is giving your team permission to fail (but not to give up!) and to ensure that they “fail safely” (i.e. making sure they aren’t testing on a production server, working without safety equipment, etc.). As a leader (or a parent for that matter) one of the hardest things to do is to watch an employee (or child) fail when you know they are going to and could stop it. Sometimes you have to let them touch the proverbial hot stove and learn rather than just telling them it is hot. Experience is quite often a much better teacher than a lecture could ever be and it’s lessons are more lasting.

“The only real mistake is the one from which we learn nothing.” - Henry Ford

Chances are, the path to every great advancement, achievement or invention in human history was paved with failures beyond number. Intelligence or education or ingenuity or experience or personality or a million other things will never be enough without the willingness to try and to fail and to try again. It is the difference between those that move and change the world and those that don’t…but could.

“The master has failed more times than the beginner has even tried.” - Stephen McCranie

As leaders we have to encourage our people to innovate and try new things, new ways of thinking…and to give them permission to fail along the way. We also have to lead them to a place where they can give themselves permission to fail, freeing them up to ask the hard questions and to try the hard things….and to change the world…

“When we give ourselves permission to fail…we at the same time, give ourselves permission to excel. – Eloise Ristad

About the Author: Lee Crowson is a Story Teller and Asker of Questions who also happens to be a Navy Veteran and problem solver with over 20 years’ experience in organizational leadership, communications, training, public speaking, operations, human resources and data analysis. He has a strong passion for learning, reading, storytelling, fitness, the outdoors and helping others to reach their full potential. He writes and speaks because it is more easily understood than his inte