Tag: Attitude

On Becoming Better at Failing

fail

Am I failing different each time? – David Kelley

In his book, “The Power of Optimism”, Alan Loy McGinnis wrote of the great fire Thomas Edison experienced at his lab. Edison’s manufacturing facilities were heavily damaged by fire one night in December, 1914. Edison lost almost $1 million worth of equipment and the record of much of his work. The next morning, walking about the charred embers of his hopes and dreams, the 67-year old inventor said, “There is value in disaster. All our mistakes are burned up. Now we can start anew.”

Edison’s attitude in the face of his disaster serves as a reminder and as encouragement to those who have ever experienced a setback or failure. As a leader the question is not whether you will have failures, but when you do, how will you respond? As you grow as a leader the types of failures and the way you fail will grow with you. Are you getting better? Here’s how you can tell.

You fail better when you are not afraid to take risks

Taking risks is part of your growth as a leader. Without risks you are in a rut and the view will never change. It’s as you dare to venture out and try new things that you can maximize your potential and reach new goals. Failures will come when you take risks but anything worth having will require it.

You fail better when your dreams are big

This is where you put your risks into action. Failure in pursuit of a big dream is much better feeling than the feeling of complacency where you are. You have big dreams for a reason. And big dreams require action. And along the way of fulfilling those dreams you will experience setbacks. Failure is a part of your growth and through every difficulty along the way you are one step closer to seeing your dream fulfilled.

You fail better when you do your very best

Big dreams and goals require more out of you than what you gave a year ago or five years ago. It’s the payoff of your growth and the reward of your hard work. A failure at this stage in your life is still many steps ahead of where you were in the past. Each step, each setback, and every failure is the result of putting your best foot forward even if you stumble.

You fail better when you fail with others

Your path to success as a leader will be easier to navigate when you have others to share it with. Smart leaders understand the power of teamwork and the rewards of collaborative effort. You can enhance and accelerate your work, dreams, goals and aspirations when others are involved. Setbacks and failures hurt less when shared by others and your recovery will be quicker. There’s nothing like sharing a few failures with your team and there’s nothing like the celebration at the end when together you achieve your goals.

You fail better when you don’t give up

Churchill said, “Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.” When failures come your way don’t give up. Failing successfully happens when you get up, dust yourself off, reassess, and get moving. You wouldn’t be where you are today if deep down you didn’t already know this. But perhaps you just need the reminder so here it is; don’t give up!

You fail better when you show others how

There is no failure or setback that you go through that is in vain if you react the right way, learn from it, and care enough to help others. Your life lessons – all of the bumps and bruises along the way can serve as invaluable teaching moments. The way you fail today is not the way you failed five years ago and it will not be the way you will fail five years from now.

The way you fail is important. As you come through your failures you are learning, applying new lessons, being more creative, and making wiser decisions. What you learn you should share. Show others that failure is not fatal, that there is triumph in adversity, and most of all it is worth it if you don’t give up.

What do you say?

© 2014 Doug Dickerson

I welcome your feedback:

1. Does failure look different to you now as compared to five or ten years ago?

2. What additional advice would you give to aspiring leaders who have experienced failure or a setback?

3. What life lessons have you learned though failure?

Leadership Minute: Hold Your Tongue?

tongue

I have noticed that nothing I never said ever did me any harm. – Calvin Coolidge

Ever had one of those times when you said something, and just as soon as the words came out of your mouth you instantly regretted it? Of course you have. We all have. In the spontaneity of the moment our mouth was in gear before our brains and we let it out. Most leaders I know are confident in their beliefs and opinions and are not shy about expressing them. That kind of confidence can be both a blessing and a curse. As a leader it’s all about finding the right balance between what you need to keep to yourself, what you need to say, and the best way to do it. What needs to be said needs to be said. How, when, and where are your considerations. The mark of maturity for you as a leader is figuring it out. When in doubt, err on the side of caution. The words you don’t speak are not the ones you will never have to eat.

Leadership Minute: Wisdom for the Ages

wisdom

Your success as a leader is not the product of wishful thinking. Your journey comes through preparation and planning. If you want to know what kind of leader you will be five years from now then look no further that your friends. It’s not whether they can take the journey with you; but do you want to take the journey with them. Choose your friends wisely. When you plan your life on purpose you get intentional results. What is the difference maker? Faith.  No plan is problem-free. You can plan for the future but you can’t predict it. Things happen. In Through adversity will come courage and character. In success will come gratitude and humility. The thread that connects the two will be your faith. Hold on to it tight and never let it go.

Leadership Minute: Smoke Screens

Wright Brother's First Flight

The Wright brothers flew right through the smoke screen of impossibility. – Charles Kettering

Many of the smoke screens that you will face in life are diversions that would attempt to throw you off course. Before every great breakthrough is a great struggle. Hanging in the balance between these great struggles is your breakout moment- the realization of your dream. It could a new career path, an invention, a promotion, a new relationship, the writing of a book, etc. But first you must clear the air of the smoke screen. For the Wright brothers it was an unrelenting persistence to take flight. And if they had listened to their critics they would have been grounded. You must fly through the smoke screens of doubters and the prophesiers of the impossible. You’ve worked too hard, sacrificed too much, and dreamed too long to be denied now. This is your time and this is your moment. Don’t give up! Are you ready to fly?

Leadership Minute: The Value of Respect

respect

I firmly believe that respect is a lot more important, and a lot greater, than popularity. – Julius Erving

In keeping with establishing leadership priorities, be careful not to fall into the trap of prizing popularity over respect. Many had rather enjoy short term popularity than pay the price for respect that is earned over a greater span of time. But popularity, like beauty, can be fleeting. You are never more than one unpopular decision away from the tables being turned and learning that being popular is not all it’s cracked up to be. Choose to be popular more than respected and you will be respected little. Choose to be respected more than being popular and in due time you will enjoy both. It’s all a matter of priority. The greatest compliment you can earn as a leader is the respect of your people. The bonus? People tend to like whom they respect.

Leadership Minute: Use Everything You Have

give

When I stand before God at the end of my life, I would hope that I would not have a single bit of talent left, but could say, ‘I used everything you gave me.’ – Erma Bombeck

We know this to be true: it’s not what you have that maters; it’s what you use. The same goes for leadership. What gifts, talents, and skills are you using? What new ones are you acquiring? The best leaders are not content just to have skillsets and talents; they want to be using them to the fullest every day. The stewardship of your leadership skills is not just about perfecting your skills, but rather is found in the way you develop them in others. The legacy of your leadership is not about the wisdom you kept to yourself but in what you shared and transferred. Being spent as a leader is not about being worn out, it’s all about being fully invested in the lives of your people. Give freely.

Leadership Minute: Be Careful Where You Sit

attitude

The world is full of cactus, but we don’t have to sit on it. – Will Foley

As a leader you will encounter your fair share of prickly people. Sometimes there is no escaping them. But how the behaviors and actions of others affect you is your choice. It’s a given that we all can have a bad day now and then and be a little prickly ourselves. But then there are those “special” people- you know the ones, they are just not happy unless they are unhappy. When life handed them a lemon instead of making lemonade they planted more lemons. But that is their choice. You will run across these people now and then. My advice? As best you can, keep running. You don’t have to sit there with them. Your happiness and disposition is one of the most important leadership decisions you will make so don’t surrender it to anyone. Be careful where you sit.

Leadership Minute: The Necessity of Discontentment

discon

Restlessness and discontent are the first necessities for progress. – Thomas Edison

Progress comes about in many different ways. This would include and not be limited to restlessness and discontentment. There comes a time when the way things are should not be the way things remain. Making progress and moving forward will require discontented leaders to take action. In what areas of your life or business would you like to see progress? Are you discontent or restless? If so this might be a good sign that you are about to see some real areas of progress in your future. You will need to work on how to properly use that energy in a way that produces the progress you desire. Identify the areas where you are experiencing the most restlessness and why. From there you can put your plans into place and work toward your goals.

Leadership Minute: Try Something New

new

Move out of your comfort zone. You can only grow if you are willing to feel awkward and uncomfortable when you try something new. – Brian Tracy

When was the last time you stepped out of your comfort zone to try something new? Was it awkward? That’s a normal feeling but one that you should get more acquainted with. When leaders learn to step out of predictable environments and dare to try new things such as reading books with differing views than your own or make new friends, it can open up whole new worlds to you. Your growth as a leader comes when you stop settling what is and dare to experience new possibilities. Be willing to be stretched in all areas of your life. Why settle for the ordinary when you can live the extraordinary? Go ahead, try something new. Step out. Take the risk. Your growth as a leader will only be as exciting as you make it.

Three Risks Every Leader Should Take

risk

He who is not courageous enough to take risks will accomplish nothing in life. – Muhammad Ali

A story is told of a lady the Midwest, Miss Jones, who had the distinction of being the oldest resident in her town. But when she died, the editor of the local newspaper had a terrible time coming up with anything to say about her.

Miss Jones had never done anything wrong. She had never spent a night in jail or had ever been drunk. On the other hand she had never done anything significant. In despair, the editor assigned the job of writing up a small article for both the paper and the tombstone to the first reporter he saw. For both the paper and the tombstone the reporter wrote: “Here lie the bones of Nancy Jones, for her life held no terrors. She lived an old maid. She died an old maid. No hits, no runs, no errors.”

While Miss Jones may have held the distinction of being the oldest resident in her town, she was otherwise a bland person. As a leader, if you are going to stand out among the crowd, realize your dreams, and fulfill your destiny then you will have to take some risks.

Many people have a love-hate relationship as it pertains to risk. They are content to admire risk-takers from a distance but are not willing to go there themselves. But if you want to make your mark as a leader then you will have to step out of your comfort zone and walk unfamiliar paths. What are some of the risks you will have to take? There are plenty, but here are three for your consideration.

The risk of being alone

Leadership for most is a lonely proposition. It’s not that you don’t have friends or that you are not among people, but the depth of your responsibilities runs deeper than what is seen on the surface. This at times will cause you to have to stand alone when making difficult decisions, when forging new paths, and pursuing your dream.  Not everyone can go there with you, nor should they.

The risk of being alone will be measured against the comfort of the crowd, the accolades of admirers, and the security of your company. Are you willing to risk all of that at the price of being alone and realizing your dreams?

The risk of being misunderstood

For many leaders this is an all-too-common reality. Leaders who are risk-takers are often misunderstood. They are perceived as a little eccentric, unconventional in their approach, and they don’t always play by the rules. Not that they are reckless or unlawful but they like to challenge tradition and thrive on thinking outside the box. They are hard to figure out because they see the same world do but through a different lens. But if you are willing to be misunderstood there is a whole new world before you that is waiting to be unveiled and new heights of personal growth to attain.

If you are fine with being misread, mislabeled, and misunderstood then taking some risks is for you. Don’t let the fear of what others think keep you from fulfilling your destiny. When you are willing to ignore other people’s perceptions then you are free to become the person God created you to become.

The risk of not being like everyone else

Every leader’s journey is different. An environment in which one leader thrives might be disastrous for another. What motivates you in terms of dreams, life purpose, and goals may hold no appeal to even your closest of friends. But that is the beauty of the risk. Your aim is not about conforming to everyone around you but rather discovering what is true about yourself and chasing after it.

Ultimately, your ambitions and dreams will require action.  As a leader you can live in fear and with regrets over what might have been or you can take your chances on being lonely and misunderstood. But at the end of the day you can hold onto a deep satisfaction that you are not like everyone else.

What do you say?

 

© 2014 Doug Dickerson

I welcome your feedback:

1. What are some risks that you are taking into consideration regarding a future goal or objective?

2. What challenges do you face in deciding what to do?

3. What risk(s) have you take that you wish you had done sooner?