“Success is not final, failure is not fatal, it is the courage to continue that counts.” Winston Churchill
At the completion of my senior year of college, my father was asked by my sorority to describe his daughter in a “tribute” letter for my graduation, my dad wrote the following:
“No does not mean no to Melanie, it is an opportunity for negotiation.”
My parents raised a stubborn, determined young lady who still to this day will not accept failure as the end of my story. Failure is part of my story, it is a bump in the road, it is never the end of the road.
Managing and mentoring a team that is willing to take risks, willing to fail and learn from those failures can be a scary proposition. People are hired to perform, to achieve objectives established by the company. When they fail to achieve those objectives, how do they move on from there?
As a manager, there is something that can be even more difficult than doing the failing yourself and that is allowing your employees to fail. It is my natural instinct to swoop in and “fix” things. When I see a fire, every part of my body screams “put it out”! The thing about a manager that never lets their people fail is that then you have a team that has never learned how to get back up and go again. A team that never fails is a team that is playing it safe, they are thinking inside the box instead of creatively trying solutions that are bigger and better than what can be found within that box.
An employee that relies on a manager to fix all of their problems and never fails, also cannot learn how to find solutions; and an employee that only brings a problem to a manager is not adding value. Managers have lots of problems. An employee that brings a suggestion or solution to solve that problem is someone that is adding value and has learned the benefits of persevering through failure.
Managing in the Middle:
- When an employee presents a problem, ask them what is their suggested solution.
- After discussing their thought process on the suggested solution, do all you can to allow them to proceed with their suggestion, even if you are not confident it will be successful.
- If the suggestion truly could result is a difficult situation or compromise the company, have the employee list out the benefits and risks of their suggestions. Talk through this list and discuss if the risks are worth the benefits.
- If you are in a meeting with an employee that is struggling or not achieving the objectives set, work to ask questions to attempt to lead them to their own solutions and achieve success independently.
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The Heart of the Middle 