After Failure
So you failed. You made a big mistake. Now what?
There is a wonderful story I heard in grad school about a small paper goods company in Pennsylvania in the 80’s. One of the Vice Presidents of this company made an error that cost the company over $10,000,000 (a lot of money at that time). The CEO was asked after the fact why he didn’t fire the VP. His response, “I just spent $10,000,000 to train him. Why would I fire him?”
Not all bosses would take that view. So here are two questions.
If you are the one who experienced failure, how do you clearly show (a) that you’ve learned and (b) what you’ve learned.
If you are the boss (or the parent), how do you show the person who failed that it’s okay to (a) admit it and (b) discuss what they learned.
If you never make a big mistake it’s because you never take a big chance. If you make mistakes and cover them up you’re more likely to make them again and the people around you are more likely to make them as well.
YOU'RE ADDICTED TO YOU
Subscribe
Leave a Reply