Success teaches repetition. Do more of the same because more of the same produces more of the same.
In changing times more of the same is deadly.
Success teaches confidence. Without confidence progress stalls, second-guessing prevails, the status quo persists. On the down side, success inflates confidence.
Bill Gates said, “Success is a lousy teacher.
It seduces smart people into thinking they can’t lose.”
Danger:
Too much confidence spawns failure. The vulnerabilities of over-confidence include:
- Failure to explore root causes of success.
- Resistance to evaluation.
- Feelings of invincibility.
- Closed ears.
Opportunity:
Failure humbles some and angers others. Humble leaders:
- Ask what caused failure. Exploring failure is the most useful result of failure.
- Know they don’t know. Not knowing is the first step to knowing.
- Adapt. Stubborn resistance to adapting reveals arrogance.
- Know limitations.
- Acknowledge weaknesses to themselves and others. Transparency marks humble leaders.
- Seek advice and welcome feedback from all quarters.
- Welcome help. High potentials don’t say, “I can do it on my own.”
- Give credit.
- Respect skill in others.
- Honor teams rather than steal credit.
Bonus: Display compassion even during the rigorous pursuit of excellence.
High Potentials:
Watch team members respond to failure, frustration, and falling short. Continue stretching the humble and coaching the angry. Elevate the humble.
Work with the arrogant. If they refuse to grow, eliminate them. Humility builds. Arrogance destroys.
It’s a tough call because confidence is essential to success. But over-confidence, eventually fails. The ten responses to failure help identify high-potentials.
What benefits have failure produced in your life?
How do you identify high potential employees?
Tags: Feedback, Leadership, Leadership Development, organizational success
January 7, 2013 at 7:29 am |
Great advice, I can certainly relate to part one!
January 7, 2013 at 7:31 am |
I love this comment from “The Last Lecture” by the late Randy Pausch: “Brick walls are not there to stop you, they are there to make you prove how much you want something.”
January 7, 2013 at 8:01 am |
Thanks for your first contribution this year Joe.
The first thing I look for in high potentials is desire. Do they want it. Very useful quote.
January 7, 2013 at 7:40 am |
great ideas – humility (with strength) is everything, and that muscle is developed through failure. Thanks for a great post.
January 7, 2013 at 8:03 am |
My experience confirms your observation.
January 7, 2013 at 8:11 am |
I love this, becuase I leaned this lesson as a teenager. I was overly cocky, and for a short period of time a verbal and physical bully. I got a good correction from a bigger boy. It taught me that my attitudes and actions can bring hurt to myself and others.
January 7, 2013 at 8:17 am |
Similar to your #6, failure helps me to try and look at a situation from all points of view. You don’t want to over analyze and never make a decision, but a failure can help you slow down long enough to realize you don’t know it all.
January 7, 2013 at 8:35 am |
am humble already this insite as rather put me on the high side.
January 7, 2013 at 8:44 am |
Dan,
I learned early in my career that saying “Here’s what I did wrong and this is how I will do it differently in the future” was key to earning respect and trust of those around me. Acknowledging my failures made my peers more comfortable and showing how I learned from them helped my bosses to see that I had critical thinking skills.
January 7, 2013 at 8:46 am |
My biggest challenge continues to be #7 .. welcome help. Not because I think I know it all but because somewhere along the line, I picked up the message that to ask for help was weak. Asking for help is very often harder than pushing through alone, but in the end, so worth it, in no small part because of strengthened relationships and trust built from a journey together.
January 7, 2013 at 8:47 am |
Needed to hear this today Thank you – I have had my share of failure in last few days
January 7, 2013 at 8:55 am |
Another thought provoking post.
One danger popped in my mind as I read over your 4 Dan. 5 for me is a closed mind, the big kahuna of dangers! When the mind is closed all bets are off. Dummies who do this forget the benefit of a parachute which only comes to the user when open.
Thanks Dan for starting my day off again getting my brain engaged.
Scott
January 7, 2013 at 8:57 am |
I hadn’t heard “humility vs arrogance” worked into the failure topic before. Brilliant, Dan! This perspective is a hidden gem that well deserves highlighting. I see it as a great body cue in determining how a person might really be feeling about his/her failure.
Thank you for your continued wisdom you bring to your posts!
January 7, 2013 at 9:00 am |
“Work with the arrogant. If they refuse to grow, eliminate them. Humility builds. Arrogance destroys.” ~Very powerful. I find this hard to do in our non-profit environment, but you have reminded me of the importance…thanks!
January 7, 2013 at 9:05 am |
You did a wonderful job it shows not arrogance but pride!
January 7, 2013 at 9:50 am |
Amen. To all of it.
January 7, 2013 at 10:01 am |
I’ve learned way more from my failures thAn from my successes. In fact, many of my successes are BECAUSE I learned from failure. At this point in my life, I have learned to try to make new mistakes rather than replay the old ones (but the only thing I’m increasingly aware of now is how little I really know). Every new situation is different- it may demand different actions in order to obtain success than what you did previously. Past experience may give you a place to start, but be willing to try a new paradigm.
January 7, 2013 at 10:27 am |
Awesome advice! I’ve seen way too often how arrogance closes their minds to the ideas of the humble. Yet as a supervisor, I’ve seen how the humble get a lot more work done with higher quality overall.
January 7, 2013 at 11:44 am |
Every success I’ve ever had has come as a direct result of soul searching, and hard work following a painful faliure.
Dauna
January 7, 2013 at 12:22 pm |
To add on to your list, humble leaders own the failure. If 94%+ of the failures are process and the rest poor training, the accountability for process and training is under the dominion of leadership not the individual or team who failed.
You can package in that most failures happen due to poor communication or the lack of….so looking at your communication process and standard would be a wise approach.
Display compassion (and humor) in the rigorous pursuit of excellence (and failure). I would rather have a process fail internally so that it can be corrected and not reach/impact those we serve.
And to riff off of B. Gates quote…’success seduces people into thinking they are smart.’
January 7, 2013 at 2:33 pm |
Thanks for the good post. I take it, but those who are riding a financial crest may be too complacent to listen!
January 7, 2013 at 3:49 pm |
Thank you Dan for these great words of wisdom! Enjoy your Monday!
January 8, 2013 at 8:56 am |
Thank you for creating and sharing Dan. This is a timely signpost and much needed boost
January 10, 2013 at 8:40 am |
Reblogged this on IN the Lead and commented:
I read this post this bu Dan Rockwell morning and thought it to be worth sharing. Failure is something that none of us want to experience, yet it teaches us so much about ourselves, about others, and about our own limitations or areas to avoid.
Dan captures this very well in his 10 Stunning Benefits of Failure.
January 10, 2013 at 4:46 pm |
Dan, great post. In addition to the points you make, failure allows you to see where your assumptions are invalid. You expect one thing, another thing happens – that’s failure, but also information. Why did things turn out differently? What is inaccurate about my model of the world? As a result of failure, we understand more about ourselves and our situations, which (if we put it to use) makes us more creative, adventurous and wise.
regards, John
January 11, 2013 at 7:13 am |
“…that’s failure, but also information.” Kapow!
January 11, 2013 at 6:56 am |
another great post. its my first time in your blog and i have already fallen deep into your posts. u have failed countless times both in business and in life. one thing didn’t change… in every failure, i gain wisdom.
January 12, 2013 at 7:45 pm |
Great article-is success good or bad?
February 3, 2013 at 5:39 pm |
Sometimes you have to fail in order to succeed!!