Failure is a tricky subject in the corporate world. On the one hand, when asked, most managers will admit that failure is a “good thing” since it allows employees to learn and grow. On the other hand, mistakes often elicit a range of negative reactions, including public criticism, sarcasm, and downright hostility.

I ran across an article I saved from an airline magazine some time ago entitled Celebrate Failure (Samuel Greengard) that detailed how some executives embrace “acceptable” failure as a part of their corporate culture. Failure characterized by repeated mistakes or negligence is never acceptable, but for many (most?) businesses, failure is never an “acceptable” option:

…sports teams often view videotapes of games and analyze breakdowns, and the military holds debriefings after every battle – [but] the business world can get shell-shocked by admitting failure. “Too often, people view failure as a sign of weakness, and they want to move on immediately,” says Richard Farson, president of Western Behavioral Sciences Institute…

Failure can be seen as a sign of weakness? Evidently, championship athletes never got the memo – most fail far more than they succeed. Still, in the corporate world, failure does seem to be construed as weakness. The problem is that the inability to evaluate and coach weakness usually only compounds the problem.

…those who lead a failed initiative lose a bit of their luster and watch their stock plummet within the organization. If the person winds up leaving the company, the institutional knowledge – what they learned from that failure – goes with him. The company may wind up using the same processes or methodology and make the same mistakes over and over again.

When a talented employee makes a mistake, isn’t that the time to capitalize? Having invested in their success, isn’t failure an opportunity to recoup some of that investment? After all, they might have learned something extremely valuable.

Great managers train their employees well, set clear expectations, and, when appropriate, provide them with the opportunity to stretch, to learn new skills, to take on new responsibilities. Then, when they fail to live up to expectations, they capitalize.

Failure is an opportunity to learn.
Failure is an opportunity to grow and mature.
Failure is an opportunity to learn what doesn’t work.
Failure is an opportunity to innovate.
Failure is an opportunity to create better plans.

The poster pictured at right is a parody of the motivational posters you will typically see in the workplace (this is one of many available from Despair.com). These posters are intended to poke fun at the thought that people can be “motivated” by something as simple as a poster.

I can chuckle at the poster (the satire is pretty funny to me), but the concept that is addressed in the poster – failure – can be a manager’s nightmare. No, not a manager’s failure, an employee’s failure.

Undoubtedly, managers often micro-manage their employees for one primary reason – they fear the failures that will inevitably arise when people step out on their own. After all, a failure of almost any magnitude is likely to create a myriad of problems, not the least of which is more work for the manager.

It is generally pretty easy to spot a dedicated micro-manager. Among other “tells”, he/she will often be heard saying to someone in the office that, “If you want something done right, you have to do it yourself.” (Funny thing is, they rarely felt that way as an employee, but that’s another topic.)

The problem with micro-managers is that they can’t see the irony of their management style. In demanding that all work be done to their detailed specifications, they almost always fail themselves. They fail to develop talent, they fail to tap the potential productivity of their employees, and they consistently fail to understand why they have turnover issues. Usually, they simply blame the employee: “He just didn’t get it” or “She never bought in to our way of doing things.”

Uh huh.

Actually, I wanted to address “failure” for this reason: if you are one of the good managers trying to coach and develop your people, you should know that the way you react to employee failure is critically important. You will communicate far more just by the way you react to failure than anything you may actually say after you react! Why? Your immediate reaction (body language, facial expressions, outbursts, etc.) reveals your true feelings about the failure. Worse, for the employee who values your opinion of them, your negative reaction can be seriously damaging to the trust you may have developed with them.

“No matter how upset a leader may be with anyone, that person should never leave the presence of that leader without their dignity intact. This requires that leaders always consider the impact of their tongues on the lives of others.”

Andre L. Lynch, CEO

I should know. For years, I couldn’t understand why my family hated to let me know about a failure of any kind. What I learned was that my reactions did more damage than the actual failure ever could. MY failure – the way I reacted – was far worse in its effect on my family than the actual failure I was reacting to.

My motto now: I don’t see failure as failure, but as an opportunity to learn and grow. I learned that somewhere way back in my sales career. It works for me as a parent; it works for me as a manager. People are going to fail; in fact, they will never become what they are capable of until they do fail.

Just be careful how you react.