What is failure? It’s the inability to perform or the lack of success. What is success? It’s generally defined as the attainment of a desired outcome. For some success might be achieving a goal, e.g., receiving a desired promotion, or achieving a mastery of a technology or subject matter, or developing a successful high performing team, or developing more effective working relationships with peers, or achieving more work/life balance. It’s in our collective DNA to want to be seen as applying our talents successfully. Consequently, to intentionally pursue failure is a disconnect.

Why is success important to us? Psychologically and physically success feels a lot better than failure including, favorable visibility, a sense of accomplishment, acknowledgment by others, and tangible rewards, i.e., increased responsibility and/or increased compensation. In contrast failure doesn’t feel as good as exemplified by, unfavorable visibility, the failure to achieve, negative recognition and lower self esteem. In the former case you feel on top of the world; in the latter you’re at the bottom of the barrel. So it’s more likely that when leaders are unsuccessful it’s because they’re unprepared, i.e., lacked the necessary skills and confidence, rather than consciously pursued failure.

What does it take for a leader to be successful? Success requires leaders to:

• acknowledge the things they know and do well versus the things that they don’t.

• ask for help without feeling embarrassed.

• continually develop by addressing growth opportunities for themselves and their teams.

• be intimately knowledgeable of their organization’s goals and the environment in which it operates.

• continually manage the ambiguity associated with plans, actions and decision making.

• be proficient in the competencies and behaviors the organization values.

• plan and execute the right actions by effectively engaging their teams.

• be knowledgeable of the critical levers to pull to enhance the likelihood of success.

• be confident in themselves and their teams.

• monitor progress and make the necessary course corrections in goals and actions required for success.

Another key to leadership success is to effectively manage the variables affecting it. These variables can enhance or decrease the likelihood of success. They can be internal and controllable by you or external and uncontrollable. Examples of internal variables include your personal behavior, thoughts, preparedness and commitment. External variables include things like the weather, the economy, the competitive environment, and the behavior, thoughts and actions of others. Success requires a leader to understand the dynamics of the environment in which he/she and the team operate; to understand the challenges facing him/her and the team; and finally, to execute a plan that anticipates and effectively navigates key variables to enhance the likelihood of success today and tomorrow.

While it’s a given that leaders are expected to control internal/controllable variables; they can also exert influence over external/uncontrollable variables. For example, a leader can create a collaborative, productive team environment and influence team member thoughts, behaviors and actions by:

• being accessible.

• setting clear goals and expectations.

• requiring team alignment (i.e., commitment and ownership of the team’s vision and goals).

• valuing constructive debate and collaboration over internal competition.

• supporting team member learning and development.

• holding team members accountable for team results.

Unfortunately, during challenging economic times organizations typically cut spending for leadership development. The irony here is that challenging times require continuous learning and development to achieve and sustain success. When you learn to lead successfully during difficult times you can apply that learning to lead successfully all of the time. A formalized leadership development process will help minimize leader failure and increase the frequency of success by providing a range of support for leaders, e.g., knowledge and skills development, focused job rotations, special project assignments to address important organizational issues, focused external subject matter courses, and coaching and mentoring.

At the end of the day Leadership Success is the intersection of competence, planning, confidence and execution. Alternatively Leadership Failure is the intersection of lack of preparedness, inadequate planning, lack of conviction and poor follow through - the lack of skills and confidence, limited access to a leadership development process and a reluctance to ask for help are key contributors to failure.

Failure is not a desired state; clearly Success feels better, adds value and is much more personally fulfilling and rewarding.

The Corbett Group is a certified leadership/executive coaching and organization consulting firm that works with leaders and teams to expand their capabilities, improve and sustain team alignment and achieve their vision and goals.

Bob Corbett