I’m going to tell you a story that happens to just about all of us and teaches a great lesson.

Riding, falling, dusting yourself off, getting encouragement from your parents and trying again. Until finally everything falls into place and you are riding your bike like a pro!

Imagine back when you were a child, maybe 7 to 10 years old. Your parents bought you a bicycle, your first chance at autonomy! You probably started off with those training wheels on both sides, so you didn’t fall down and crack your head open. Regardless, your parents might have had you in full protective gear anyway!

Then a day came when you took off ONE of the two training wheels and finally the day you take off the second training wheel because you were going to learn how to really ride a bike. Both training wheels are now off, your mom or dad is anxiously holding the back of the bicycle to help you not fall off. They give you a few instructions and you start to pedal. Suddenly you are going to fast for your parent to keep up,

You get a little scared as they are no longer holding the seat and off you go. Now you need to stop or turn. BOOM, you lose your balance and fall off the bicycle. There you are, laying on the ground with the bicycle on top of you. You’re not too sure what really happened or if you should cry. Your parents are half amused and half concerned and they go to help you. You look up at them as you are dusting yourself off and they encourage you to try again and try again you do.

You repeat this process 2,3,4, 5 times. Riding, falling, dusting yourself off, getting encouragement from your parents and trying again. Until finally everything falls into place and you are riding your bike like a pro!

When you fail it hurts just like falling off that bicycle. You get a skinned knee, a skinned elbow, and a couple of bruises to go along with them! It makes you scared of doing it again! After all, who in their right mind wants to continually fall and hurt themselves. But just like on that bicycle, every time you fall you must overcome your fear and try again. Without overcoming the fear of failure we are paralyzed and nothing we want will come to pass. You must conquer your fear of the pain that failure can impart and try again.

When you learn something new you tend to fail. Failure is almost required in order to learn a new skill. It is not something bad, it is a sign of progress. When you are doing something outside of your comfort zone and/or outside of your skillset your goal is to fail and fail better each time. Each time you fail, you have accomplished and completed a lesson.

Failure should be approached with understanding as it is a positive part of the process of acquiring a new skill. If you want to become better at what you are doing, a better person, a better professional, a better leader. Embrace the failures along the way, as those failures are the true teachers of the new skills you are learning.

If you are leading people to new places you must be like the parent. Ensure they have the training wheels on when they are first attempting to ride the bike and put on the safety gear so they are psychologically safe. Take the training wheels off one at a time so they a comfortable with the new skill they are developing. When they go to ride alone, give them guidance, hold the seat so they feel safe to start and when they fall, encourage them to try again.

You look down at your feet and realize… One sock is blue and the other is black..

Now let us imagine you today, you are no longer a child. You wake up every morning, get ready, and off to work you go. One morning you wake up, go to the bathroom and while brushing your teeth you somehow missed and smacked your gums.. OUCH. Then you go to the kitchen to get your cup of coffee and while you are doing it you spill coffee all over the place! Crap you say to yourself, grabbing paper towels to clean up the mess you just made.

Now you are running late and rush to your closet to put on some new clothes because you just managed to put some of that coffee you spilled on the clothes you were going to go to work with! Rushing through your wardrobe you put on some clothes, grab your keys and cell phone then out the door you go.

When you get to work you say hi to everyone, then walk into the bathroom and notice.. Umm.. this outfit is wrinkled AND doesn’t match! You look down at your feet and realize… One sock is blue and the other is black.. UGH… off you go about your LONG day.

That night you go to bed early, wake up in a good mood and everything goes as it should. Your gums are not bruised, your coffee was not spilled, AND you look fantastic!

There are different types of failures in your life and organization. You can fail while doing something new which is not only acceptable but should be encouraged. Then you can fail to do routine things that you are exceptionally skilled at.

It is important to differentiate between these types of failures. One is caused because new skills are being gained and new and improved results will be gained. The other is caused by stress, lack of paying attention, or impossible deadlines.

The first type of failure is acceptable.. The second is not. When you or your organization is failing at core skills they are competent in, you must look for a cause of this failure. Have you changed the pace of work that is causing everyone to rush and deliver a bad outcome? Was there a change in leadership and you now have unmotivated employees who are not paying attention? Did you let your guard down and allow unproductive people to join and disrupt your team?

These unacceptable failures must be quickly diagnosed and addressed. The first type of failure will take you or your company to the next level. The second type of failure will sink your entire ship.

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