Failing to Learn from Errors: #4 of the Six Mistakes Smart Leaders Make

By Mike DuBose and Blake DuBose

There are perils, both common and unexpected, that can befall even the most intelligent of leaders. Sometimes, markets change or corporate offices fall prey to freak weather occurrences like floods or fires. More commonly, however, organizations are impacted by human error. People make hundreds of decisions each day, and not all of them are rational or logical! Leaders are often left to clean up the mess after their choices (or another person’s) have unexpected negative consequences for a business.

Fortunately, business errors do not have to spell the end of a leader’s career. To a wise leader, mistakes and failures are gifts, even if going through them is painful. When openly examined and discussed, they allow members of the organization to learn priceless lessons and prevent the problems from reoccurring. As Tom Rieger explained in his book The Fear Barrier, “There is learning in failure. If an idea fails, that failure can be used to help others come up with a better way, trigger a training opportunity, or otherwise identify what is or isn’t effective.”

In fact, some of the most lauded and respected leaders of all time have failed and come out of it wiser (and probably humbler) than before! Here are just a few famous leaders and innovators who stumbled before reaching immense success:

• Bill Gates began a company called “Traf-O-Data” that was supposed to create reports for traffic engineers. When the product was demonstrated, it didn’t work, and Traf-O-Data failed. Just a few years later in 1975, however, Gates went on to found Microsoft, and he is now the richest man in the world!
• Steve Jobs spent millions of dollars of Apple’s money creating the Lisa, a personal computer, in the late 1970s. Sales were dismal, and Jobs was even forced out of Apple over the fiasco! He created another company, NeXT, which ran out of money but was acquired by Apple, bringing Jobs back to the company. The rest—the advent of the iPod, iPad, Mac, and other Apple products used all over the world today—is history.
• K. Rowling, creator of the Harry Potter series, is now a billionaire. However, before the book was published, she was a divorced single parent “as poor as it is possible to be in modern Britain, without being homeless.” Twelve publishers rejected her manuscript before it was accepted by Bloomsbury Publishing…and today, over 400 million Harry Potter books have been sold!
• Michael Jordan has famously been quoted as saying, “I’ve missed more than 9,000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games. Twenty-six times, I’ve been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.” Even years after his retirement, Jordan is still one of the first names to come to mind when people around the world think of basketball!
• Richard Branson, founder of the Virgin brand (which includes budget carrier Virgin Airlines), has been quoted as saying, “Learn from failure. If you are an entrepreneur and your first venture wasn’t a success, welcome to the club!” It’s a topic that’s familiar to A dyslexic, he struggled at academics and dropped out of high school. He was once arrested for tax evasion, and many of his Virgin Group ventures (Virgin Cola, Virgin Digital, and Virgin Cars, to name a few), failed. But Branson, with his characteristic determination and charisma, kept going. Now, he’s worth nearly $5 billion!
• Stephen King is one of the most widely-known authors in the world, famous for his horror classics like The Shining and It, many of which have sold millions of copies and have later been made into successful films. But it took King over 30 tries to get his debut novel, Carrie—now also famous in both movie and book form—published. If King had given up, the world of literature would be poorer for it…and King would, too!

There are countless more examples from business and other sectors of people who initially failed but later became wildly successful. Clearly, a person’s ability to succeed is due in large part to his or her determination to figure out what doesn’t work, overcome these failures and mistakes, and apply the lessons learned. However, some leaders (whether for fear of being disciplined by higher-ups or to protect their fragile egos) refuse to bring their teams’ failures out into the open. Instead, they sweep them under the rug, losing valuable learning experiences.

Everyone can learn from mistakes, not just those who make them. Therefore, it’s important for leaders to create a culture where mistakes aren’t punished, but rather are brought into the open and dissected without judgment—where, as Jim Collins put it in Good to Great, they “conduct autopsies, without blame.” If leaders ridicule or punish their staffs for making mistakes or failing, the employees will try to hide future mistakes, leading to problems further down the road. Not only are the mistakes likely to reoccur, but staff members afraid to take risks, stifling the possibility of innovation and leaving potentially great ideas unexplored!

Leaders should also note the failures of other organizations within their industry and compare them to their companies. They should ask themselves, “Are we making the same mistakes? How can we ensure we don’t follow this same path?” In his book Why Smart Executives Fail, Sydney Finkelstein says, “Avoiding other companies’ missteps can be just as important as emulating their successes.” Competitors typically have similar goals, so their mistakes can teach leaders helpful lessons—but only if they’re willing to learn. Leaders who are too proud to look to their competition’s stumbles and failures are likely to make the same missteps themselves.

The bottom line: In life, mistakes happen. No matter how smart a person may be, he or she is certain to fail on occasion. What separates good leaders from the bad is the manner in which failure is treated. Those who openly discuss errors and turn them into learning opportunities create valuable lessons that they can apply to the future; and those who hide them or berate staff for failing doom their companies to repeating the same mistakes again!

About the Authors: Our corporate and personal purpose is to “create opportunities to improve lives” by sharing our knowledge, research, experiences, successes, and mistakes. You can e-mail us at [email protected].

Mike DuBose received his graduate degree from the University of South Carolina and is the author of The Art of Building a Great Business. He has been in business since 1981 and is the owner of Research Associates, The Evaluation Group, Columbia Conference Center, and DuBose Fitness Center. Visit his nonprofit website www.mikedubose.com for a free copy of his book and additional business, travel, and personal articles, as well as health articles written with Dr. Surb Guram, MD.

Blake DuBose graduated from Newberry College’s Schools of Business and Psychology and is president of DuBose Web Group (www.duboseweb.com).

Katie Beck serves as Director of Communications for the DuBose family of companies. She graduated from the USC School of Journalism and Honors College.

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