The Point: We’ve all heard the failure-to-success stories that propel us with optimism. For example, Steve Jobs fired from Apple, reloads at Pixar and ultimately returns to take a bight out of the Apple (and the World’s economy for that matter!) It’s with sports fanatic revelry that leaders who overcome failure are hailed, right? After all, who doesn’t like the long-shot coming from behind to win it all! But why did the leaders fail in the first place? What if it was from everyone wanting them to fail? With this in mind we put together the following post, along with eight (8) tips to help you, the leader, overcome… Enjoy!
The Profit (Double-Entendre)
Marcus Lemonis of CNBC’s ‘The Profit’ show weekly identifies a business that is failing, sometimes more miserable than others, strikes a deal for ownership stake after putting down his own money, and then works to help the company rise from the proverbial economic ashes a la The Phoenix. The fairy tale ending ensues… The business owner (typically small family owned) primarily reduces stress and debt, organizations head in a different direction, and Marcus gets filthy rich! Roll the end of show credits!
But what if the family actually acted to undermine Marcus? What if like most organizations there was the typical in-fighting and employee undermining or stabbing in the back? What if they wanted him to fail?
Who Wants You To Succeed?
As a leader you have the dubious task of getting out of bed each morning, getting dressed, and looking yourself in the mirror and providing your best Lombardi-like pep talk. Here’s one of those pep-talks a leader I work with provides himself with daily:
“Good morning handsome! Today, you will be unstoppable. Others will try to get in your way. However, you will overcome their obstacles to achieve the goals that you’ve laid out for yourself. You are smart, talented, and great at what you do for a living. I love you… Go make it a great day!”
From the above, you could look at this as perhaps the narcissistic moment of the post. Or, you could look at this as the intended direction which is typically the only person that wants you to succeed is… Drum roll please… Yourself!
8 Leadership Tips To Overcome Failure
So what can you do as a leader to overcome failure? We polled those we currently work with and assembled the following 8 leadership tips to overcome failure.
Leadership Tip #8 – Own Your Leadership: You simply must walk your talk as a leader. If you don’t… How can anyone else? Perhaps more importantly, if you don’t own your leadership why would anyone want to assist you in leading?
Leadership Tip #7 – Find Peace: If you know who you are, where you are going, and have a plan for how you will get there find peace in what you’re attempting to do. Nervousness makes for an interesting comedy sitcom, but not the best leadership moment.
Leadership Tip #6 – Trust Yourself: Similar to Leadership Tip #8, if you don’t trust yourself why would others trust you. Perhaps the single-most important element of leadership is the trust others have in you. With it, you’ll achieve great things. Without it, well we’ll see you on The Profit!
Leadership Tip #5 – Listen Actively: If you are a leader that speaks all the time and spends none of it listening to your stakeholders (as we recommend in our Centered Executive Coaching programs), you’re not going to have many follow you. After all, why would they if you don’t get their input? You’re probably doing everything yourself anyway!
Leadership Tip #4 – Think Critically: I hesitated when the first leader brought this up (There were more than one!) Here’s why: If the goal of a leader isn’t to think critically, how are they thinking? Perhaps another way of saying this is to think objectively to arrive at solutions.
Leadership Tip #3 – Influence for Engagement: If your workplace is like many of the leaders we work with at Tip of the Spear, there is a spirit of disengagement. Use the principles of influence to get engagement.
Leadership Tip #2 – Be Positive: Inevitably, the chips will not fall in your favor. Do not let that cause your attitude (which determines your altitude) to drop.
Leadership Tip #1 – Communicate with Influence: In Leadership Tip #3 we talked about using the principles of influence to engage those around you. In order to do so, you’re going to need to communicate with influence!
SUMMARY
Why not right your own television series each and every day? A television series played out in real life where you, the leadership hero, is victorious in everything you do! I hope these 8 leadership tips to overcome failure allow you to achieve more.
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