You've just experienced a professional failure. What leadership skills do you need to develop?

It is our failures that will bring us higher learning than our success. I have found deep understanding, internal reflection and awareness from the times I've failed. To the extent that today, I often speak about my failures and what I've gained from them. Resilience, perseverance, mature criteria have been my top lessons, to name a few. These values have helped shape my leadership and supported me to keep pushing myself to do better. However, today I want to say that its not only how to do better, its about how to BE better. Acceptance of us being wrong, accept the failure. What we accept we can change. Recognition of who we are and the aspiring potential of who we want to be. Commitment to never ending learning mode.

When seeking feedback, ask for specific examples to ensure that you are all speaking the same language. Speaking in generalities will not provide you the granular details you need to understand your role in what, where, how, and why things went awry. Also, during the conversation, be sure to actively listen and write down the feedback. This will allow you: - to be present in the moment - to have time to reflect rather than being reactive to new information on the spot Finally, when internalizing feedback, it is important to remember that feedback is often situational. It rarely speaks to your character and does not define you as a person moving forward.

Experiencing a professional failure can be disheartening, but it also presents an opportunity for growth and development. Resilience emerges as a critical skill, it's not an inherent trait, but a capacity that can be nurtured through deliberate practice and mindset shifts. By reframing failure as feedback and learning, we acknowledge that setbacks provide valuable information for improvement rather than indicating personal inadequacy. This shift in perspective activates neural pathways associated with learning and adaptation, fostering resilience in the face of adversity. We always learn when things are challenging - it's important to reframe it from a "failure" to an opportunity to learn, grow and do things differently and better.

As a leadership coach, this is where I spend the most time with my clients after a setback. It is crucial to understand the thoughts, feelings and actions associated with the situation. The thoughts and feelings are often tied to something larger, something outside of the immediate situation connected to the subconscious mind. Without addressing these longer term limiting beliefs, it becomes increasingly difficult to take actions that align with learning from the situation and moving forward. Bringing awareness to and acknowledging these thoughts and feeling is the first step to understanding how to navigate through them. Even in creating a plan forward, focus on how you'd like to feel and think rather than physical actions themselves.

Managing your emotions is the key. it’s important to remember that it’s okay to feel all sorts of emotions while dealing with difficult phase. When you can handle how you feel, you're more likely to take responsibility, listen to advice, and be open to learning new things. Every time you work on staying steady and positive, you’re getting better at leading and bouncing back from anything that comes your way. Discover what helps you stay strong: Talking to a friend Speaking to a mentor or coach Or just giving it time.. Find your way & keep moving forward It’s all about finding your way to keep moving forward.

Failure is an opportunity to help your team to build a growth mindset. When something doesn't work, it is only truly failure if we don't learn anything from it. When we have a growth mindset, we see failure as part of the process. We approach it with curiosity, and learn what we can do better next time. Though it may feel a bit uncomfortable, when you experience a failure: --Share with your team. They know it is safe for them to do so as well. --Talk about how you approach failure with curiosity, mining the situation for lessons. --Share what you have learned, and ask them for their insights. --Talk about what you will do differently next time. Having these conversations fosters an environment of continuous learning and iteration.

Cuando fracasamos, seguramente veremos el cielo oscuro... Pero es vital la resiliencia para poder reponerse y frialdad en el análisis, para entender por qué sucedió el "fracaso", seguramente veremos ahora ese fracaso como oportunidad ♻️