Note: You are receiving this email because either you expressed an interest in, or received a copy of Michael's Amazon bestselling book "You Are the Team—6 Simple Ways Teammates Can Go from Good to Great."
Hi All,
I just wrote a post on my Teamwork and Leadership blog titled "Leaders Need to High-Five Failure in 2018." While I am sure it will raise a few eyebrows, failure is necessary for success. And how you treat failure on your team will dictate your team's success.
In my book You Are the Team, I specifically address failure and mistakes as part of my third "B"—Be Humble.
Here is a story taken from my book that I think you will appreciate. The way we handle our own mistakes and the mistakes that others make, matters.
I recently heard a story from Stephen Glenn about a famous research scientist who had made several very important medical breakthroughs. He was being interviewed by a newspaper reporter who asked him why he thought he was able to be so much more creative than the average person. What set him so far apart from others?
He responded that, in his opinion, it all came from an experience with his mother that occurred when he was about two years old. He had been trying to remove a bottle of milk from the refrigerator when he lost his grip on the slippery bottle and it fell, spilling its contents all over the kitchen floor—a veritable sea of milk!
When his mother came into the kitchen, instead of yelling at him, giving him a lecture or punishing him, she said, ‘Robert, what a great and wonderful mess you have made! I have rarely seen such a huge puddle of milk. Well, the damage has already been done. Would you like to get down and play in the milk for a few minutes before we clean it up?’
Indeed, he did. After a few minutes, his mother said, ‘You know, Robert, whenever you make a mess like this, eventually you have to clean it up and restore everything to its proper order. So, how would you like to do that? We could use a sponge, a towel, or a mop. Which do you prefer?’ He chose the sponge and together they cleaned up the spilled milk.
His mother then said, ‘You know, what we have here is a failed experiment in how to effectively carry a big milk bottle with two tiny hands. Let’s go out in the back yard and fill the bottle with water and see if you can discover a way to carry it without dropping it.’ The little boy learned that if he grasped the bottle at the top near the lip with both hands, he could carry it without dropping it. What a wonderful lesson!
This renowned scientist then remarked that it was at that moment that he knew he didn’t need to be afraid to make mistakes. Instead, he learned that mistakes were just opportunities for learning something new, which is, after all, what scientific experiments are all about. Even if the experiment ‘doesn’t work,’ we usually learn something valuable from it.”
On your team, you and others will make mistakes. Will you look at them as opportunities to learn and succeed, or as failure?
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