Guest Article: Failure Is Not A Competency by Jay Kuhns, SPHR

Proclaiming one's failures seems to be a trendy thing to do these last few years. It's an odd thing though, at least it is to me.

I get the whole "learn from your mistakes" angle...but, really...relishing in one's failures?

Lower the Bar
I'll be honest here. I don't want to fail. In fact, I get upset with myself when I stumble, let alone fail. I'm sure you do too.

Maybe, we have embraced failure as way to limit expectations of ourselves and our colleagues?

Maybe we have socialized failure so heavily, it is now more important to "own it" when we fail vs. being held accountable?

Maybe we need to stop making excuses about weakness, incompetence, and yes, failure?

How does that sound?

Harsh or Honest?
If you've written off today's post as a rant, think again.

How is failure treated in your organization? Do those leaders who struggle continue to stay in their roles, all while your senior leadership team preaches accountability and upholding corporate values?

You can't have it both ways.

Maybe what's happened to the corporate world is that we're all so fearful of employment litigation, that we've made it okay to hide behind excuses to be weak and indecisive? We see it a lot...so...it must be true.

Right?

How About You
How are you addressing failure and driving accountability into your organization? Is it working? What has made your approach successful?

I'd love to hear from you.

No Excuses.

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Article source:Jay Kuhns, SPHR - Failure Is Not A Competency»

Check out more of Jay Kuhns' work at No Excuses HR