Every team sometimes experiences failure. Worse than failure itself, however, is the inability to learn from it. Most managers know you should learn from failures, then move on but this is easier said than done. Let us therefore focus on specific steps to help your team overcome failure and use it as an opportunity for further development. The following tips appeared on the Harvard Business Review website.
Control your emotions
Your feelings have a major impact on the overall mood of your team. So, before you start dealing with the failure, calm down and remind yourself that your job is to help your team members to overcome their own negative emotions.
Show understanding
Nobody wants you to become totally positive immediately. Your staff also need some space to be able to handle their disappointment and anger. Show you understand their feelings and tell them you are not feeling too good yourself.
Specify what went wrong
Do not distort reality and do not try somehow to improve it. State openly what happened and why. Focus on the facts.
Do not place blame
Do not focus on who made a mistake but on what needs to be improved. If you want to talk with one or more team members who made a serious mistake, arrange a private discussion. Even then, focus on the mistake, not on criticising personality traits of your subordinates. You can also try an anonymous team exercise: ask your staff to provide written feedback on their colleagues.
Improve the mood
Once you have analysed the causes of the failure, concentrate on what will happen next. Wait a few days and hold a discussion on how to avoid similar mistakes in the future. At this stage, you should be positive and show enthusiasm for further work. Do not be afraid to use some humour too.
Move on
Tell the team a story from your own experience when you experienced failure and were able to learn from it. If you do not have such a story, use the history of the team. Ask your subordinates to recall a situation when something went wrong but ultimately turned into a benefit for the whole team. Then a discussion should follow concerning what you can learn now. You might try another team exercise. Divide the team into two groups: the first will then focus on what could go wrong in future projects, while the second should put together what specifically the team can change.
The general rule is: Focus on solutions rather than problems and more on the future than the past.
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