# 5

Over the past several days I have shared the top 4 challenges that leaders will face according to John Maxwell. Here is number 5, the last on his list:

5. Failure

I have seen many leaders with self-sabotaging traits stemming from an unhealthy perspective toward failure.

Some leaders live with a nagging sense of impending failure. They don’t believe they are good enough to succeed, and sooner or later they fulfill their self-expectations of failure.

Other leaders refuse to take risks. By sticking to safe paths, they assure themselves of failing to have significant impact.

Still other leaders allow failures to derail them. They see failure as a personal indictment rather than a step in the ongoing process of their growth as a leader.

How to Profit From Failure

(1) Change Your Vocabulary.
Every good leader I’ve ever met has had the amazing ability to turn a setback into a springboard for greater effectiveness. In his book, Leaders on Leadership: Interviews with Top Executives, Warren Bennis interviewed 70 of our nation’s top performers in numerous fields. None of them used the word “failure” to describe their mistakes. Instead they referred to “learning experiences,” “tuition paid,” “detours” or “opportunities for growth.”


(2) Keep a Sense of Humor.
Give yourself margin to make mistakes. Laugh at your failures rather than languishing in them.

(3) Make Failure a Learning Experience
We should never walk away from failure empty-handed. Each failure comes with lessons attached, and we can learn invaluable principles from them.

The Big 5 Recap:

(1) Everybody Gets Discouraged
(2) Everybody Has Problems
(3) Everybody Resists Change
(4) Everybody Feels Fear
(5) Everybody Experiences Failure

Attitude, the difference maker, is the one thing that enables a leader to rise above these challenges.