HRWorX Blog

The "Lens of Failure"

2011-12-12T16:06:00.000-05:00

After reading this article that says successful organizations should create cultures that are okay with failing, I would offer the following thought.

"The paths to all my successes are paved with all my failures. If you're taking detours to avoid damage, get some new shocks to absorb failure. You'll be a better driver and get to where you want to go more efficiently."

I can say a lot of my best lessons in life have been big and small failures, mainly, because learning from them allowed me to have an ultimate success at something by knowing it wasn't just "luck".

I can easily say one of my biggest failures was early on in my career because I feared failure. I was okay with admitting failure to my team or myself and learning from it, especially when it was small, and I got a lot of respect for it. However, as time went along I got too caught up in success that I feared I might fall from it. As I succeeded more, I focused more on failing and fearing it.

I jumped at a promotion as soon as one was offered when in reality it wasn't a job I liked as much. It wasn't a horrible career move, and I got more experience in a new area. However, I left behind a team I was passionate about and a role I could have delivered and even bigger impact to the company in.

I had convinced myself I reached an absolute maximum across a function and defined domain, to use a term from math. However, my vision was distorted by the "lens of failure" when I was really just at a local maximum. When you fear failure it will distort your view of the future and what you can achieve. It is also a self-fulfilling prophecy because if you continually avoid to recognize failures you will not be strong enough to overcome them when they finally catch up to you.

In my case, I'll use the illustration below. Failure made me think I had reached a maximum and I was scared people might think I was "lucky" if performance of my team dipped down some. I was worried it could happen at anytime, so when I saw a new opportunity I went for it. I took the opportunity for the wrong reason. I would have been a stronger person had I stuck with the team and realized I may have had some low points in the new future. It's inevitable! Even the best leaders will see some ups and downs in their team's performance. The key is to look at the long-term performance and know the overall trajectory is up if you're learning from the small dips.

I probably could have done so much more with my team and contributed more to the company, which I see as a failure on my part. I failed to deliver more and ran from a fear's lesson (although it is ironically now a lesson for me, hence the blog!). That's why I'm now okay when things look scary. Getting through the bad times and being self-aware enough to learn from mistakes makes you able to rebound stronger each time.

Should CEO's be Innovators or Operators?

2011-11-15T07:47:00.001-05:00

This short blog article shows a study found CEO's have more creativity but less organizational skills to execute their ideas. Lots of management/leadership books debate the qualities of perfect leader, but in reality there probably isn't a perfect mold. Good leaders find good teams.

When you look around at "successful" CEO's there's a mix bag of true innovators and others that can run operations better than any and incrementally move their company to a better place. I wouldn't argue with the study's conclusion. However, I also wouldn't say it's onedirectional, meaning I could find the reverse to be true as well depending onhow you structure the survey/study.

The key is exactly what the article mentions near the bottom. CEO's need to find a good team to balance them. We all have strengths and the key is finding a team that can balance our strengths and weaknesses.

I've heard both sides from successful CEOs and they allpoint to their teams being important. In a book by that talks about a Gallup poll conducted over 25 years on companies called, "First, The Break All the Rules" there is a chapter on finding the right partnerto be successful when you are a manager. Successful managers and leaders balance themselves with well rounded teams.

I would also say it also takes a reasonable effort to meet in themiddle if your talents are extreme in one direction or another. For instance, you're a completely outside the box thinker but have zero organizational skills. I'm a very detailed oriented person, but I do try to find middle ground and explore ideas. However, when I've worked for leaders who can't set any direction because they see too much of the big picture I get incredibly frustrated. Often times their teams begin to mirror their disorganization. The opposite is 100% true for leaders that can't get past looking at a spreadsheet or to-do list to make any decision with big picture thinkers reporting to them.

If you can pull a team together with the right skills andkeep them motivated it doesn't matter if you're super creative or not. However, just like in politics, the middle ground is usually the best route. Once you're a leader, you can't use your natural personality as an excuse for a lack of execution or creativity. You need to interact with your team in the ways they respond best to unleash their talents, which will free you up to focus where you are best.

Steve Jobs' Legacy

2011-10-19T10:24:00.000-04:00

In light of all the articles and blogs about Steve Job and his legacy we came across two within a matter of minutes that painted very different pictures of his legacy.

One points out how we should all strive to follow his path and another claiming a lot of what he did wasn't as great as some people claim.

We definitely agreed and disagreed with claims in both articles, and enjoyed debating them to expand our own thinking past what may seem obvious at first glance and digging deeper.

Welcome and Join Our Community

2011-10-18T12:15:00.000-04:00

It's official. The HRWorX leadership team has started a blog. We'll be posting our own thoughts related to our area of expertise in forms and workflow automation in addition to interesting topics in technology, sharing articles, and whatever else we feel is interesting to us and our followers.

Please check in regularly to see new posts and share your thoughts. We look forward to exploring topics through our community's diverse views and opinions.

Stay tuned for more!