Team Principles 6.3
Failures are not a one-time occurrence – you likely can look back on your life and think of a few times where things didn’t quite go according to plan. The truth is, it likely won’t be the last time you’ll fail either. It’s crucial to train your brain to reframe failures as an opportunity to accelerate your growth and bring you closer to achieving your goals.
Here are some strategies we use to “fail well”:
Tap into how you feel: trying to minimize your feelings or “sweeping it under the rug” can be counter productive. Recognize your emotions for what they are – we know, it might sting!
Change your viewpoint: acknowledging failure as something you experience rather than something you do can be helpful in reframing the failure as a tool, not a setback.
Take realistic responsibility: Assume responsibility for what was in your control and identify outside factors that may have influenced the outcome.
Use it to improve: Apply your learnings and share with the broader team to not only avoid the same outcome, but to encourage open sharing of mistakes.
At MEDUCOM, one-on-one conversations help address what might be holding us back from achieving our goals and strategize how to move forward. Further, we encourage sharing these experiences with the broader team not only as a preventative measure, but to also gain comfortability owning our mistakes and sharing with others. This is the foundation of a strong support system that stands by our team members, rather than criticizing every misstep.
We’re thankful to be a part of a team who uses failures to fuel our drive to be the best we can be. It doesn’t matter how many times you fall; it is the number of times you get up!
Written by Marcie Szymanski
