Can Leaders Fail ?

The Leadership Challenge Middle East

Is failure of itself part of the leadership journey or does it mean the end of leadership?
The word ‘failure’ in the English language has clear and concise meaning.
In our school years we all were fearful of the possibility of ‘failing’ the exam. The consequences of failure were never good in our learning journey through school and then university.
As a process, failure has certain clear markers:
- We failed to win the contract.
- I failed to get the support of senior management.
- We failed to recognizing the looming crisis.
- I failed to get the support of my team.
Each of these examples - we can imagine- can have dire consequences.
When we use the term ‘failure’ it evokes negative and sometimes painful, emotions.
Failure therefore, is not good.
Or is it?
As the best leaders to learn every day, is failure an option?
As leaders encourage the team to learn from the mistakes and issues that may have risen, is that going to encourage failure?
As leaders empower team members to be better than they thought they could be, is this of itself, a pathway to failure?
And when the leader has a clear vision, shared by all the team members, and everyone is working towards that vision, there may be difficulties, there may be challenges, but when they’re all working together to achieve the outcome, there are so many positives which mitigate against failure.
Contrast that with managers who don’t share information, who micromanage, who believe that they have all the answers themselves, who believe that it’s “my way or the highway.”
In this case, the first of likely failures will be the simple act of having the team work together, of building trust with the team so that work collaboratively, productively.
When a leader follows The Five Practices of Exemplary Leadership failure is not in his or her vocabulary, it’s simply not an option.
If a leader builds strong engagement and they are not successful in meeting their targets, is that a failure?
No. Likely they have learned better ways to achieve the targets next time.
Because of the relationship who she has with those they are leading, team members will want to not let the leader down, they will want to perform at their best – and they know they’ll receive encouragement when they do that.
Managers may have sleepless nights worrying about an imminent failure.
Leaders, on the other hand, will ask their team members “how can we do it better?” “How can I support you - each of you - to get through this challenge we have?”
Leaders inspire, they motivate because of their leadership behavior, because they are Modeling the Way.
Failure is not a leadership behavior.