Kate Marshall

Columnist

Kate Marshall

Speaker, Coach, Author

Leadership: Dealing with Mistakes and Setbacks

Albert Einstein once said that anyone who says they have never made a mistake has never tried anything new. No-one in this world is perfect – mistakes are an inevitable fact of life and a daily hazard of leadership. Mistakes can be embarrassing, costly, even tragic – but the best leaders understand that they are also opportunities. Indeed, I argue that you learn as much from your failures as you do from your successes. So what is there to be afraid of?

Of course, many take the view that risk is an everyday part of their organisation. To these leaders, mistakes are an occupational hazard. It followed, then, that their behaviour towards mistakes in others, and their reaction to their own mistakes, was seen as a key element of good leadership behaviour. Gail Rebuck, chief executive of Random House, made the point that during her early career her bosses had been ‘very indulgent’ when she made a mistake and took the view that you learn from it, stop beating yourself up and move on. ‘That is such a valuable lesson, it really is,’ she says.

A few years ago, I was asked by a board to work in a business where unfortunately this was not the view of the executive team. It was a very strong “Alpha” team that were passionate about growth. Don’t get me wrong, they were growing the top line, winning new business; their aim was worthy, but their style and behaviour shouted “win at any cost” and mistakes were not tolerated. They had created an atmosphere where mistakes were seen as a disaster and a personal failure. Consequently, they had created a situation in their organisation where people felt unable to admit to their mistakes and when they did, they feared the response. They condemned people for a wrong decision – or a less-than-desired result, often looking at who to blame rather than understanding the context, background or, indeed, circumstances which led to the failure. That fear dominated behaviour and the company went into freefall. A culture where people don’t feel safe, where a blame culture pervades impacts decision-making, stifles innovation and risk-taking stalls. The organisation will at best be mediocre, and at worst fail and fail fast. An organisation will only travel as far as the people can trust the leader. Our task was to rebuild trust and change the mindsets of the executive team who were blinded by their ambition to win at all costs.

Great leaders believe that ultimately, a mistake within their organisation is the leader’s responsibility – and are not afraid to shoulder the blame. Great leaders believe that in the best organisations, responsibility moves upwards and the blame culture is all but extinct. Poor leaders generally have a terrible habit of failing to admit when they’ve made a mistake.

There is no doubt though that mistakes, particularly painful public mistakes, are a stern test of a leader’s ability. We have seen many of these here in NI in business and in political life. There is a good chance that you will learn a lot more from making a mistake than you will from getting it right, provided there is a person reviewing the mistake and the underlying methodology in a helpful manner who listens to what went wrong and focuses on what can be learnt.

This brings me back to a mantra that I learnt early in my career – Catch people doing things right. This uses the analogy of the emotional bank account. Like a monetary bank account, if you make enough deposits (catching them doing it right) then you will be in the black, in credit. If your emotional bank account is in credit, it’s easier to discuss what’s gone wrong, identify the mistake, build and maintain trust. Too often poor leaders only give feedback when something goes wrong. The emotional bank account is always in the red. This results in a culture of fear and in a culture of fear, we retreat to safety, keep our head down and look for an escape route.

People often see feedback as negative: feedback can be incredibly positive if delivered well with the right motives. I’ve had the privilege of working with some sports teams where players receive detailed feedback on their performance after every game, whether they won or lost.

The most important lesson, though, is that successes should be analysed and praised as thoroughly as failures. The leaders that have adopted this approach within their own organisation know that people were more willing to talk openly about mistakes in the context of success. We know that only analysing mistakes will damage the morale, culture and trust within an organisation. It is the successes an organisation wants to replicate, not the failures. And remember we are a consequence of our thinking and beliefs; we are hard wired to be safe and a culture where mistakes are not tolerated is not safe!

“Of course, many take the view that risk is an everyday part of their organisation. To these leaders, mistakes are an occupational hazard. It followed, then, that their behaviour towards mistakes in others”