Luis Quintero / Unsplash
In case you haven’t noticed, World Cup euphoria is everywhere. Devoted fans are brimming with pride. You can’t miss the colorful flags painted on their faces, the pure joy in their voices as they sing their national anthem and the exuberant roar when the ball hits the back of the net.
Soccer is everywhere right now. People around the world are watching the World Cup. Forty-eight teams entered the tournament, and despite the cultural and political differences each team brings to the pitch, they all have one thing in common. They want to win.
Who doesn’t love to win? We celebrate victories, growth charts and success stories. But the reality is that in leadership, as in sports, we don’t always win. Sometimes we get it wrong.
If we are going to thrive in leadership, then before we quickly move on from failure, we should sit with it long enough to see what the experience has to teach us. We may gain the kind of insight we can’t learn from a lecture. It’s the insight that comes from slowing down long enough to be curious.
The best leaders choose not to deflect and blame after failure. Instead, they sit with the experience, like Moses may have done during his long days as a shepherd after fleeing Egypt. They accept failure as an invitation to reflect on what happened, how they might have contributed to what happened and what homework they need to do to achieve a different outcome in the future. Failure may feel wrong, but when we know what to do with it, it’s the “right kind of wrong” (per Harvard Business School’s Amy Edmondson).
Resources
Failure as faithfulness
The parable of the sower and modern-day design thinkers challenge us to take risks rather than fear failure.
By Sarah E. Forsyth
Lessons from lions: Acknowledging failures as well as successes
When we focus only on the shiniest success stories, we miss out on what we can learn from the realities of failure.
By Victoria Atkinson White
Loving through failure
There are life lessons in being a loyal fan of a team, whatever their win-loss record.
By Emily Lund
Concealing the past doesn’t undo it
Congregations can complicate their present and hobble their future by hiding from their past.
By David L. Odom
Before you go
I’ll be honest with you: Success hasn’t always been my best teacher. I’ve learned many lessons from my mistakes and failures.
This has been true in both my pastoral and personal life. During my youngest child’s early teenage years, I did not always connect with her as well as either one of us would have hoped. A part of the problem had to do with the typical issues that arise during adolescence. Another part of the problem, however, was my approach to handling those typical adolescent issues.
She and I had several honest conversations during which I really listened to her perspective. She heard what I needed to say. We both learned a few things about ourselves, and today our relationship is thriving. I’ll never forget that the path to where we are today was not a linear journey of one success after another. I’m a better father because I paid attention when things weren’t working.
Leaders have that same opportunity to pay attention each day. Ask yourself what’s not working and then see what you can learn from that.
You can always reach me and the Alban Weekly team at alban@duke.edu. Until next week, keep leading!
Prince R. Rivers
Editor, Alban at Duke Divinity