In 2010, the most shocking event of the second weekend of college football season was Virginia Tech’s surprising loss to James Madison. At the time, Virginia Tech was ranked 13th in the entire country. It is my theory that Tech never recovered from its loss to Boise St. from the previous week. In essence, I make the argument Boise St. actually beat the Hokies twice. They beat them the opening week on the field and beat them again in their mind the following week.
Have you ever had a single event or decision that kept beating you over and over again? I sure have. There have been mistakes I have made which have taken me weeks to recover from. For leaders to achieve their full potential, we learn from our failures but cannot be continually defeated by them. We have to learn from them, get over it and move on.
The following are 7 Reasons Leaders Must Quickly Learn From And Then Get Over Their Failures:
- Leadership Is An Oval Track – Leadership many times does not have a finish line. Because leadership is continually moving forward, we are on a continual oval track. Leadership challenges just keep coming and coming. We cannot afford to be prisoners of the past.
- Our Team Needs Us – We have to get up and move forward because our teams need us to help them navigate through difficult times.
- Mental Health – Because you are constantly breaking through barriers and taking new ground as a leader, this will require intentionality, focus, and direction. A sense of failure leverages against what is needed for you to succeed.
- Attitude – People follow positive individuals who point towards a brighter tomorrow.
- Influence – As leaders, we need to model to our team how to handle failure. Our team will follow our lead.
- Big Picture Thinking – We need to evaluate things that set us back in context of a larger picture.
- Momentum – We were taught as children to get right back on our bike when we fall off. This principle is still true for adult leaders. When you have a defeat, get back on the bike and quickly regain the momentum that only comes from victories.
I wish our personal performance and that of our teams was always up and to the right. However, history tells us otherwise. When something seems to have gotten the better of you, do not let it keep beating you. Once is enough for leaders to learn from.
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