Recently I attended a Talent Management conference, in which presenters shared best and next practices. I attend conferences to ensure that I stay relevant in my field. This allows me to provide my clientele the most up to date workforce practices.
One presentation particularly resonated with me. The focus was on how the company encourages and creates a culture for failure. The premise behind encouraging employees to fail lies within their business reality that the business operations and mission could be a matter of life and death. In the company video shared with us, one employee stated: “when you break something it means that you have tested it to its limits”.
This particular comment stayed with me throughout the conference. Why, because in all that we do, failure is not an option or more importantly it is the last option. How often do we limit ourselves because of our fear of failure? How often do we settle for what works as the gold standard, not having tested it to the point of breakage? Are we limiting our abilities to flourish because we stay in the “success zone”? If our career success was a matter of life or death, would we perform differently? We fail to explore all possibilities for success, when we allow fear to impact our ability to make decisions or to take actions.
*To ensure success, explore the limitations of your
product or service and remove the following fears:
• Fear of being judged
• Fear of rejection
• Fear of embarrassment
• Fear of failure
• Fear of success
• More responsibility
• More attention
• More pressure
During this same conference, I had the pleasure of dining in the hotel restaurant. The customer service was exceptional. I engaged in conversation with the wait staff and learned that many of them had been with the establishment for 17 + years. In my conversation, I asked what is it about this company that makes you stay? The response was unanimous; it was a good working environment, a learning organization focused on quality service and a place to flourish in your profession. At one point, we asked a question about the local area, the staff did not stop until we had the answer. In fact at one point we had 3 different servers at our table, probing for clarity on our question, so that they could give us the correct answer. There was no apparent fear in any of the people to whom we had spoken. It was about providing us the best guest experience.
So go ahead: Try to Fail, Your Career will Flourish.
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