In every game there is a winner and a loser. Unless it’s soccer but leave that out. In baseball there is always a winner and a loser. There is a designation for the winning pitcher and an equal designation for the losing pitcher. More than any other game or sport, baseball clearly identifies the outcome. You – you are the game’s winning pitcher. You – you, there are the game’s losing pitcher. Perfectly balanced, right?
If so, please explain this to me. Why does a Google search for the word “success” yield 1.28 billion results and a search for the word “failure” only come up with 553 million, half as many? Why? For every two “success” videos on You Tube, there are ~25 million, there is one “failure” video, roughly 11 million. Again, why? How about this. Let’s talk about newspapers. The daily rags that spew venom at their political adversaries. How do they stack up? Since 1851, the New York Times has reported 596,000 stories of success and only 370,000 stories of failures.
If every game as a winner and a loser, then why are there so many more winners?
Welcome to Swimming in the Flood; a podcast where we develop the resilient leader’s mindset by navigating difficult currents in business. My name is Trent Theroux.
In an article titled “Hidden Failures”, author Lauren Eskreis-Winkler investigates an erroneous belief and the asymmetrical world of information it produces; one where failures are common in private but hidden in public. Go to your LinkedIn page for immediate proof of this theory. On the first page, how many of your contacts are being congratulated, or congratulating themselves for an accomplishment? Contrast to the number of your contacts who write about missing an important project deadline or a prototype didn’t work as expected. You really don’t have to look. You know the answer.
We live in a society where success is rewarded, no matter how significant, or insignificant, the success may be. And we, collectively, seek the dopamine rush from being congratulated by our peers and very casual acquaintances. I often wonder. During my life’s journey did I derive more value from my successes or my failures. Is the leader I’ve become a testament to voluminous successes or stinging failures? The answer for me is my stinging failures. My very, very stinging failures are what developed and shaped me. And I use this forum to explain to you, my constant listeners, the gory details of how I’ve crashed and burned, not just for your amusement, but for our collective benefit. Yes, I tout my successes, but I give equal time to my failures. On some nights I am both the winning and losing pitcher.
In 2011, Domino’s Pizza created a revolutionary advertising campaign. Domino’s is predominantly known for delivering a pizza to your door in thirty minutes, or less. That was a trademark advertisement for them. They would deliver in thirty minutes. It didn’t matter if the pizza was undercooked, or stale or squished by the delivery guy. It was at your door in 30 minutes. Domino’s received numerous complaints about the quality of their product and their new campaign would highlight those complaints.
CEO Patrick Doyle admitted the company’s failures in commercials. He acknowledged that the pizza crust tasted like cardboard or that microwave pizza may be superior. Then, he announced that Domino’s listened to the feedback, redesigned their sauces, cheese blends and crust seasonings and asked customers to come back to Domino’s to give it a try. And they did.
Returning customers were pleased with the outcome and thought that the mea culpa was honest and refreshing. Same store sales rose, and quarterly profits doubled.
The public accepted the admission of failure coupled with a plan for how it would be improved. They were willing to trust Domino’s again.
When I was in my first staff accounting job I made a grievous mistake one month; I failed to mail our the monthly statements. Part of my duties was collecting the Accounts Receivable and I can tell you that deadbeat payers are always seeking an excuse why they can’t pay. Not getting a statement would move to number one with a bullet. I realized my mistake about a week after the statements should have been mailed. Several customers contacted asking for their statement to balance their account. My body started shaking when I appreciated that I made my first corporate mistake. I had a young child at home and I was seriously worried that this mistake, this potential problem with cash flow I caused would cost me my job and set back my career.
I called the computer department and ordered the statements. This was back in the day where someone had to run a special program to get items printed. The computer department told me that they would have the statements ready in two days. Next, I went to the bathroom to make sure that my shirt and tie were properly aligned and tucked in. Then, I went into the CFO’s office to tell him of my failure. Thirty years later, I can’t remember why I didn’t go to my boss, the controller, but I was knocking on the CFO’s door asking for a minute of his time.
I was shaking as I recounted the mistake. The CFO nodded and listened then asked what I planned to do about it. I told him that I has already requested the batch from the computer room and I would more than happy to lick the stamps to get them out the door. He laughed at that and thanked me for coming to him with the solution in hand rather than letting the situation fester. Truthfully, I didn’t know that festering was an option, but I’m glad I went with admitting failure.
I am now going to give you my unscientific, non-peer reviewed, resilient leader theory on admitting failure. Are you ready? Got your pencils out? Here’s it is. Write A Failure Letter. You heard it. Write A Failure Letter.
Here’s how the theory works. General Dwight Eisenhower was the Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces in World War II. Before the D-Day landing on June 6th, 1944, Eisenhower, commander of the invasion force, wrote two letters for public consumption. One was released, praising the efforts of the soldiers and sailors who successfully gained a foothold into Nazi-occupied France. The other was not…
The second letter was written in case of disaster and filed away. Eisenhower wrote a curt message that pointed to himself as the blame for any defeat. It read, “My decision to attack at this time and place was based upon the best information available. The troops, the air and the Navy did all that bravery and devotion to duty could do. If any blame or fault attaches to the attempt, it is mine alone.”
The General spend nearly two years planning the invasion that would turn the tide of the war. In the best or cases, thousands of young men would die on this day as the Allies advanced into France. In the worst of cases, thousands and thousands of young men would die as the Allies failed. The General appreciated the moral difference between the two and was prepared to accept immediate responsibility for the events.
There are few models of leadership greater than accepting our mistakes and failures. Rehashing, deep dives, forensic analysis, looking back are all ways to learn from these. Yes, success feel great. It is great to walk off the pitcher’s mound in triumph in the bottom of the ninth. But what may make us a better pitcher is being pulled out of the game after leaving a pitch over the plate that was smashed for a three-run homer.
Folks, here’s a challenge for you – I would like you to consider writing down the next failure that you have. You don’t need to post it on Facebook or LinkedIn, just write down the failure. Then, below that sentence write three short bullet points about what led to the failure, what actions you took or didn’t and how you are going to correct the failure. Then, I want you to take a picture of your note. That’s it. Don’t delete the picture. In time, you will scroll through your photos. Some of you do that more than others. You will scroll through your photos and see the note and I will serve as a valuable reminder of what you learned and overcome.
Folks, thank you for listening to Swimming in the Flood. Resilient leaders face challenging currents, and it is tough navigating, but with one tack or another we can get there together.