Edition 453 – Let Them Fail
In more than one family business I’ve observed over the years, a senior member of staff, or invariably, the owner, throws their hands in the air when something goes awry and says “I may as well do it myself”.
One family business owner places people into a role, internally, and proceeds to throw them in the deep end as they try and find their feet. Generally, inside of three months, something happens on any given day and, just like the straw that broke the camel’s back, those staff are yanked from their new role, thrust back into their former job, and the owner takes back the responsibility they were not long ago, desperate to offload.
Another owner, with a complement of more than 30 staff, is the key person on site in an industrial focussed business, that undertakes projects around the country. In spite of the fact that he knows he needs to train people up, to de-risk the business from him being the key technical person in the organisation, it just doesn’t happen. He’s great with the task of managing people – it’s just that I don’t believe that he fully trusts those he employs, to do the job as well as he does.
With each of these, and a horde of other small and family business owners I’ve come into contact with over more than three plus decades, it comes down to this – you have to let your people fail! Failure is rarely terminal and, for many of us, it’s the way that we learn. Back in the days of the old schoolyard (to quote Cat Stevens), you may have been laughed at when you answered the teacher’s question incorrectly. However, it’s how we learn.
Over the years, I’d suggest the learnings in my own career, as an advisor, a business owner myself, and as an employee, have come not from my successes, but my failures.
Like the time I was too slow in dealing with a passive aggressive employee, because I felt their contribution to the business, in the role they employed, was too valuable to lose. In the end, my weakness in confronting head-on their poor behaviour no doubt cost me the respect of other staff and, quite possibly, staff altogether, as this person was, no doubt, perceived as untouchable. When I finally did the right thing, and suggested their behaviour would cease, or they’d be moved on, it drew a line in the sand, and before long, they were gone, of their own accord. However, I was too weak and took too long to act.
Similarly, when my gut feel about a former business partner, and what they were doing, as opposed to what they should have been doing, in our business, had me questioning “what’s going on”, I continued to give them the benefit of the doubt. However, their underperformance continued and, ultimately, cost me a considerable sum of money, simply because I didn’t front them early on, when I noticed the warning signs, but chose to ignore them.
Each of those failures, are lessons that I’ve not only grown from, but have emboldened me to pass on those messages to my own clients, when I can see they’re taking too long to make decisions in their business they themselves should be making.
Next time you entrust someone in your business in a new role, give them the support and the resources they need to succeed – but also give them the opportunity to fail. Sure, it might cost you something. However, if you’re doing your own job as the CEO well as you should be, you’ll intervene before the consequences are monumental, but at a time when they’ll have gained some valuable learning, from their failure.
This Week’s Tip
“Often, those that succeed the most, are also those that have failed often.”