RISK TAKING
Great leaders are ones who are able to set high and challenging goals and drive them and their teams to achieve those goals. However, challenging goals are just that...they are challenging and often carry a greater chance of failure. The sooner we learn how to manage failure, the better we will be able to position ourselves to take the risks we need to succeed.
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Think through the following questions:
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Do you view failure as a good or bad thing? Can you think of leaders you know who have failed in some way that you have observed or they have shared?
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Have you ever failed at something whether personally or professionally? How do you handle failure?
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What scares you the most about failure? Is it how you will be viewed if you fail? The impact on your self confidence? The reality of sacrifices made? What else?
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No leader has gotten to where they are without failing along the way. Every leader will fail at some point in their journey, if not, then they likely are not striving for greatness. The truly great leaders are the ones who are able to take failure and use it as an advantage to learn and grow moving forward. Review the 3 mindset shifts to manage failure (Fail Freely, Fail Fast, and Fail Forward).
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Think through the following questions:
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Do you give yourself the freedom to fail? Are there risks that you aren't willing to take because you are afraid to fail? What could the positive outcomes be if you took the risk and succeeded?
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Are you able to identify failure quickly or do you tend to sink with the ship? What are ways that you could measure success faster to know whether you should move forward or readjust a goal?
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Think about the last time you failed at anything. What did you learn from your failure? Have you taken action to ensure you do not make similar mistakes?
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TAKE ACTION
Thomas Edison failed thousands of times before he was able to create the light bulb. Henry Ford closed his first car company because he was not able to design and produce a car fast enough for his buyers, which later led him to reimagine the assembly line process and start the Ford Motor Company. Truett Cathy ran a small diner in Hapeville, GA for almost 20 years before he perfected his chicken sandwich recipe and started Chick-fil-A. Henry Ford once said that "failure is simply the opportunity to begin again, this time more intelligently." As a leader at Chick-fil-A, we want you to feel the freedom to fail. We want to provide a safe environment where you can take calculated risks that hopefully lead to much success, but also allow you to learn from your mistakes. We also want to encourage you to create that same environment for your team members to take risks and fail as well. If we all learn to manage and grow from failure, the sky is the limit on what we may accomplish as a business. Try to see if you can take a step forward in each one of these mindsets of failure over the course of the next month.
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Fail Freely – Identify a problem in the business that you believe could be a game changer if it was addressed and improved. What are the barriers that currently keep you or others from trying to fix the problem? What can you do to remove those barriers and give yourself freedom to take a risk?
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Fail Fast – Meet with other team leaders and team members to find as many solutions as you can to the problem. Create some type of assessment or feedback loop so you can evaluate the success of each solution and then try implementing some solutions to see if they help you achieve your goal. Consider adjusting or stopping solutions if your assessments and feedback show that it is not helping you improve your problem.
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Fail Forward – If a solution does not work, take some time to evaluate why the solution did not work. What went well and what could you have done differently? Take some of your learnings and see if you can apply it to the next solution. Continue the process until you find a solution that works!
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CHARACTERISTICS OF MASTERY
Creates an environment that encourages innovation and risk taking; champions breakthrough ideas; pursues new opportunities and makes them a reality; can create processes to assess goals and projects successfulness; is able to recognize failure and move on without losing motivation; is quick to learn from failures and seek and make adjustments for future success.
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ADDITIONAL RESOURCES
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"Failing Forward" by John Maxwell
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"Great by Choice" by Jim Collins
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