Maria Gonzalez Blog
Mindful Leadership

There Is No Such Thing as Failure, Just the Need to Change Course

As a leader it is important not to get caught in the trap of viewing outcomes as failures.  When you perceive something as a failure your ego is inextricably linked.  This can cause you to enter the blame game (blaming yourself or others) which never results in a positive outcome.  It also does not allow you to make optimal decisions and to be open to new opportunities.

Rather as a Mindful leader, you are aware that some things work and others things don’t work as well.  So your mental attitude becomes one of changing course in a direction of educated exploration, in an attempt to arrive at a desirable or intended outcome.  Imagine that you are sailing, you have plotted a course and the winds suddenly change.  You wouldn’t view that as a failure.  You would merely realize that conditions have changed and that you need to change course to work with that reality.  In this example there is no failure, just changing course.

I am particularly fond of a quote by Thomas Edison on this topic.  “I have not failed.  I have just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.”