Tanaya Walters discusses why it is important for leaders to encourage their employees to fail.

1. WHY YOU SHOULD
EMPLOYEES TO FAIL
b y T a n a y a W a l t e r s
E n c o u r a g e

2. FAILURE. IT’S SOMETHING THAT THE MAJORITY OF US
HAVE A GREAT FEAR OF. WHETHER IT’S FAILURE AT
WORK OR IN RELATIONSHIPS, NO ONE EVER WANTS
TO FEEL AS IF THEY AREN’T GOOD ENOUGH AT
SOMETHING. HOWEVER, ENCOURAGING YOUR
EMPLOYEES TO EMBRACE FAILURE CAN ACTUALLY
BENEFIT YOUR COMPANY. LOOKING FORWARD HELPS
YOUR EMPLOYEES TO REALIZE THEIR FULL POTENTIAL
IN THE WORKPLACE. CULTIVATING A GROWTH
MINDSET IS AN ESSENTIAL PART OF THIS PROCESS.
HERE ARE THREE WAYS TO ENCOURAGE GROWTH IN
YOUR EMPLOYEES AND SHOW THEM THAT FAILURE IS
OKAY.

3. MODEL YOUR BEHAVIOR
If you want your employees to have a growth
mindset and be unafraid of failure, then you
need to be practicing what you preach. Leaders
who openly discuss their past struggles and
failures and what they learned from those
experiences will help their employees know that
they can do the same. Openness about these
failures will help their employees to see that one
failure does not destine you as a failure for the
rest of your career, that failures are instead
opportunities to learn and improve your
performance.

4. EMPHASIZE NEED
Focusing on your own need for development can help
those around you to do the same. It’s essential for
employees to realize that even leaders take the time to
work on personal and professional goals and that
development is an ongoing process and not an end goal.
Leaders should involve themselves in their employees’
development as well. Ask about your colleagues’ goals
and aspirations and have discussions about what will
need to happen to achieve these goals and how you can
assist in that process.

5. ACCEPTABLE RISK
The hardest part about shifting to a growth mindset is
giving up that unwillingness to fail. This feeling runs
deep into organizations, with many unwilling to try
new ways of doing things in favor of the old, tried-and-
true method. However, struggles are part of the process
of growth, and it’s crucial for everyone in an
organization to see that. Help your employees accept
failure by talking to them about how they’d like to fail.
Have people identify what risks they want to take or
what ideas they have. Acknowledge that these risks and
ideas may not work out, but that’s okay. When it
doesn’t work, no one will feel shocked because they
were told there was a chance that it wouldn’t.
Innovation can only arise through frequent failure.
Employees must feel safe to fail, so it’s necessary to
cultivate a culture where that’s true.