Many times when we talk about leadership characteristics, we think of things like integrity, character, taking care of others, decision making, etc. While those are all incredibly important, we often overlook a leader’s ability to accomplish the mission. At the end of the day, a leader must accomplish the mission if they are to be effective. This does not mean that a leader cannot fail from time to time. Eric J. Weis said, “Only the naïve expect to succeed in every endeavor. For the majority of worthy pursuits, whether military missions or corporate endeavors, success rests on the foundation of several failed attempts.” Fear of failure can often leave people short of living up to their true potential. When our fledgling organization was founded to advance the mission of leader development (now called the Center for Junior Officers), Brigadier General Kauffman issued this edict: “If you don’t fail sometimes, you’re not trying hard enough.”
But wait… isn’t failure contrary to mission accomplishment?!?! Yes… and no. When we fail, we are likely not accomplishing the mission. However, if we don’t push the limits of possible, we will be settling. Leaders must find a balance between mission accomplishment and failure. Failure is not always acceptable. Certain missions or tasks may be “no fail,” meaning they are so critical to the success of an organization or larger mission that failure would result in disaster. In these cases, leaders may need to dial back their risk tolerance. An effective leader will know when they can push the limits and when they need to make more conservative decisions. This balance will also depend on the organization itself. For example, industries where failure could mean death, such as the airline industry, may not value risk taking the same way as a consumer products development company values it. This is all to say that leaders have to make these difficult calculations based on the context at that time. While the fear of failure can inhibit leaders, failure should not be something that leaders just accept. Leaders should take a failure, learn from it, and make themselves, those around them, and the organization better as a result.
With all of this talk about potential benefits of failure, we must not forget that leaders still have to accomplish their mission. A leader who fails time and again in the name of innovation but never accomplishes their mission will likely not be in their role for very long. Accomplishing the mission is crucial, though it should never come at the expense of moral/ethical values (see our article on Character here).
So, can you fail as a leader? Yes, but only some of the time given the right situation. You are paid to accomplish a mission. An organization does not need to pay someone to have a 100% failure rate. You could pay anyone to fail 100% of the time. A leader balances pushing the limits with mission accomplishment to make the organization and its’ people better (but more on that in a later installment).
(Photo used with permission of Chad Plenge)
———
In this series we will explore characteristics of successful leaders. Here is our list of traits so far:
Character
Which characteristics do you think are the most important? Do you agree with our list so far? Comment below and tell us what we have right, what we have wrong, and what we should add.
———
Chad Plenge teaches leadership psychology at the United States Military Academy and develops high potential leaders with the US Army’s Center for Junior Officers. He holds a Master of Arts in Organizational Psychology from Columbia University, a Master of Business Administration, and a Bachelor of Science from the United States Military Academy. Chad is a certified Project Management Professional and an active duty officer in the US Army. In his free time, he serves as the President of the board of directors as well as an Assistant Director for a non-profit organization.
