Many people tend to view failure as the end of the road. They avoid it at all costs, stay rigid in their methods so they don’t fall by the wayside, and can’t shake off the associations of failure with negativity. People give up when they fail because they feel as if they’ve hit a dead end.

That mindset definitely has to change. 

Failure can actually open up to become an opportunity for something greater. You can eliminate one way of doing something and can set you on a completely different path that leads to great success. 

In business, directors and equity partners need to learn from their failures in order to become successful, strong leaders. If you give up part way because of a small hiccup, you don’t build character, resilience, or inventiveness and you fail your staff and your vision. When you lose your confidence, your staff and your team will, too. And, in extreme cases, it can lead to your business failing because you can’t pick yourself up. 

Remember that true failure only occurs when you give in to your mistakes and refuse to learn from them.

Why failure isn’t a bad thing

Redirecting your perception of failure can be difficult because, as business leaders, you always want to aim for success. Financial success, team success, and personal success to name a few. So not meeting those goals can cause some dissonance between what you aim to achieve and what you couldn’t do. That gap between those two things can cause a lot of hard feelings and make you feel as if you didn’t do enough. 

Failure is framed as negative because it brings about negative feelings. But it doesn’t have to be seen that way. It’s a chance to learn something new and is often a better teacher than success is.

Take an athlete, for example. A winner of a game usually will not dwell on how he or she or she won, they’ll simply celebrate the victory. There’s the possibility that they’ll review the game after, but it’s not as likely because the success is thrilling in itself.

But the ones who come in second or third will definitely go over what happened and replay the game in their mind: I could’ve had a stronger start, I could’ve pushed myself harder, I could’ve defended here better or attacked when I could’ve. Where they make mistakes, they’ll create different scenarios of what they can do to be better. With that failure, they know how to reframe themselves in order to tackle their next obstacle.

In rectifying their errors, they become stronger, smarter, and more resilient. And this is the attitude you need to adopt as a business leader. So more often than not, failure can give you a better lens in which to see improvement than success can. 

4 ways failure helps us as leaders 

Failing tasks as a business leader can become the avenue for better ideas, more innovative processes, and as a way to frame yourself as someone your staff can relate to more. Here are four ways that failure can help you as a leader. 

1. Strengthens your EQ

Being an emotionally intelligent leader that is open with their mistakes makes for a more reliable leader. Vulnerability is an extremely important quality in a leader that not everyone embraces because they equate it to weakness when it’s actually the opposite.

Showing that you’re vulnerable makes you more trustworthy because of that transparency you have. Instead of seeming so put-together and fake, you’re open about what you don’t know, ask for help, and show that you’re willing to learn through failure. When your staff sees this, they feel more at ease and confident and will want to work with you. 

You become more self aware and are able to confront yourself on whether or not you see failure as defeat or motivation. When you see it as motivating, you become more resilient and patient with yourself and with others on your staff.

2. Teaches you what works (and what doesn’t)

After encountering a failure, you learn what doesn’t work and that doing something a particular way won’t get the result you want, so it becomes easy to discard that process and find a new one.

Knowing what doesn’t work is just as important as knowing what does. In fact, it might be even more important. Because if you find what’s successful from the very beginning, veering away from that might lead to even bigger errors and obstacles down the road. Finding the paths that you shouldn’t take shapes the path that you should. 

You become more inventive in your solutions and failure provides you with a sense of perspective. 

3. Boosts innovation and creativity

Instead of boxing yourself into one mold, failure makes you explore new systems, processes, and ways of thinking. If you’ve gotten too comfortable in one box that you’ve closed yourself in, things may not progress, you can stagnate, and eventually lose the traction you’ve already gained. Therefore, it allows you to become more innovative and creative in thinking outside of the box to find better solutions.

One example is during COVID-19 where many companies had to rethink their business models and how they made sales. They rolled out new methods within days or weeks and prospered while helping out their communities. 

By moving out of your comfort zone, you can find new challenges that might just lead you to what you want. 

4. Builds culture and company growth

When your staff sees you fail, they feel less pressure, as well. Imagine seeing your business leader admit to themselves that they made an error and apologise. It makes you feel as if you’re not tied to a standard of perfection either and it won’t be the end of the world if you fail.

It also encourages accountability within the team because you show you know how to take accountability, too. All of these things create a positive work environment and grow the staff and the company, empowering them to take risks and make bolder decisions while viewing failure as an opportunity, just as you do. 

Because of this, you can cultivate a great company culture that upholds creativity and collaboration. 

The best leaders are the ones who emerge from failure much stronger and can withstand the possibility of another one. As long as they’re prepared to learn, to adapt, and to be patient with themselves, they can overcome the hardships of falling short and bring about positive change and success for themselves and their company.

If you want to become a stronger business leader in spite of failure, book a call with us.