Celebrating Failure

I am more experienced therefore, I have had many failures and learned many lessons from each. I would have to say, that I choose not to dwell or really consider these failures, but I learned a long time ago these are just "learning opportunities".

My most recent opportunity for learning was an employee who was having difficulty focusing on their work due to disruptive employees. They were at the point of wanting to go to our human resource because of the issues they consistently encountered.

The employee came to me with this opportunity and I listened and engaged with the employee. I felt I understood the concern and we could resolve the problem moving forward. The next day I met with the disruptive employee to explain the concern that was brought to my attention. I heard that side of the story and felt there must have been some legitimacy in their position and their actions were not in fact related to the employee that initially came to me with their concern. I prefer to bring parties together to resolve matters and have an open discussion with myself as the mediator. It has always worked for me in the past and was confident after hearing both sides, it would work again.

Still Smile in Face of Failure (High Five Anyone?, Anyone?)

Could I have been more wrong? Ummm, most definitely. I lost control of the meeting. Tempers flared and I knew immediately, this was heading downhill. I separated the two and retained the employee that came initially to me with their concern. This employee was quite disappointed in me by placing them in that environment and now was considering leaving the organization. I was able to briefly apologize for her feeling I put her in a disruptive situation and asked her to please not look at the company in a negative way based on how I handled this matter. She was sure how she felt, accepted my apology and then left my office.

This troubled me because, I clearly missed something in the employees concerns. I was way over confident in my abilities based on past experiences. I assumed this was a quick fix, but in all actuality, this was not.

I found ways to slowly earn the employees trust by making an effort to change their environment and make strategic changes as far as seating (I suggested them and gave the employee an opportunity to consider and accept the change). This employee is thriving immensely in the company. I saw a lot of potential with this employee for the organization overall, not just in my department. In my opinion, it makes good business sense to keep valued employees and ensure they have opportunities for growth in and out of my department.

I was reminded never to get comfortable with my past successes and assume past strategies will work today. I value the lessons I learn from these opportunities because it helps me to continue to grow as a manager. The perspective I gained from this class regarding failure with regards to risks, is that risks are part of life and you cannot avoid them. The real question and test is what do you do when faced with the failure of that risk?

This class has changed my thinking about the only limitations to my becoming an entrepreneur is my thinking age matters. It is all about the concept for a "real" need.