Try again - and learn when you make a mistake
Maybe you never make a mistake, but I doubt it.
Failure- it’s good, not bad – and failure at work is not likely to demotivate
Have you made some (work) mistakes recently, well, good!
You’re human.
So am I! That’s wonderful, btw! We humans make mistakes and fail sometimes.
It is not the mistake or the failure that is the problem.
The problem is not learning from them, or even sometimes, not being willing to make any mistakes, to be outside of your comfort zone. Then you don’t move- and certainly don’t change.
Learning how to avoid failures from previous ones is one way to get ahead. Below you will find a list of 10 causes of failure focusing on leaders, which is taken from Napoleon Hill and some ideas for 2022-23 – it’s a bit edited for a more modern way of thinking.
Causes of Failure (for leaders)
· Unorganized, “no time” for the important – remember the Eisenhower Matrix
“No genuine leader is ever “too busy” to do anything which may be required ...” according to Hill. The following quotations are from him.
· Pride
“Truly great leaders are willing … to perform any sort of labor which they would ask another to perform.” Pride goes both ways and can make us afraid to try because we might fail.
· Entitlement – this is a big issue in today’s western culture! We are entitled and do not see it, but we call others entitled. Hmm!
· Fear – we must face our fears and move on despite them (getting rid of the fear is unnecessary)
· Uncreative, lack of imagination
Often we are not creative when we are too busy. See my previous blog on how to relax and that may help. The next blog will be on tips to free up some time.
· Selfishness
“The leader who claims all the honor for the work of his followers is sure to be met by resentment.” This is highly linked to entitlement.
· Intemperance (Hill’s actual term) – the old-fashioned word is gluttony. At this time of year, it’s probably about eating and drinking, but it can be about too much of anything. Maybe too much TV, too much … whatever… and spending to make you feel better is gluttony, too, btw.
· Disloyalty
“The leader who is not loyal… to his associates, to those above… and below him, cannot long maintain his leadership.” Also, consider what and who you are loyal to. IS it the right loyalty?
· Too authoritarian – flat hierarchies are “in” these days; time to consider your leadership style; is it at least situational? Teams that are empowered to make informed decisions are doing best, according to research.
· Too caught up in “title” and reputation (to focused on yourself; need I say more? – this goes back to pride and entitlement, again)
“The man who makes too much over his title generally has little else to emphasize.”
Maybe you see yourself, or someone else you know, here. Focus on your own self, first. Try and avoid these pitfalls and try and learn from your mistakes.
Remember: it is good to fail, though.
Here’s why it’s actually good to fail, if responded to correctly- by learning from mistakes with good follow-up questions
We learn best from mistakes. All learning that is real is reflected - and we hopefully reflect when we fail.
Really, I mean it- so here a few questions to consider (reflect on) when you make a mistake:
Why did it make sense that I/they/we did it that way?
What was the goal and how did I/we miss it?
What was my/their/our part in the mistake?
Also, from a more business-oriented perspective:
The major error-shaping factors at each level of performance (Reason, 1990)
Performance-Level
Error-Shaping Factors
Skill-Based
1. Recent-ness and frequency of previous use (it is new, well, failure is expected)
2. Environmental control signals (is the environment messing with things?)
3. Shared schema properties (is the system set up for failure?)
4. Concurrent plans (is too much going on?)
Rule-Based
1. Mind set ('It's always worked before')
2. Availability ('First come best preferred')
3. Matching bias ('like relates to like')
4. Over-simplification (e.g., 'halo effect')
5. Over confidence ('I'm sure I'm right')
Knowledge-Based
1. Selectivity (bounded rationality - am I not looking at the whole picture?))
2. Working memory overload (bounded rationality is too much on my mental plate?))
3. Out of sight out of mind (bounded rationality - have I forgotten something that is not “seen” or not recently considered?)
4. Thematic 'vagabonding' and 'encysting' (is the issue not open to change and it’s environmental shifting needs?)
5. Memory cueing/reasoning by analogy (watch for mental bias, in general!)
6. Matching bias revisited (we focus on what proves our assumptions)
7. Incomplete/incorrect mental model (we need other people to help us see our assumptions and missing links)
These next few weeks are a good season to reflect, to think about the positives and negatives of the situation and make a balance that is good: learn from the mistakes; continue doing the good; move onward and upward towards a wonderful work and life !
Patricia Jehle, Jehle Coaching
