Arthur Carmazzi is considered one of the top ten leadership coaches in the world. He provides the following advice for leaders wanting to develop and sustain leadership at all levels of an organisation.
As a Leader Allow Others to Fail
As a Leader allow others to fail. If your into control, into making sure everything is perfect it is not going to happen and therefore you will not develop leadership in others. So you must allow others to fail.
We as human beings learn through our failures, we learn through the things we do and try. We as humans do have an ability that others sometimes don’t see. Sometimes we just don’t even get a chance to show that ability. Chances are that that has happened to you. There has been a time when you know you can do something and you just don’t get the chance to do it. There are other times when you think you can do something and it just doesn’t quite work out but you learned from it.
As human beings we are developing constantly to become better. But unless we are allowed to fail, unless we are allowed to take that risk and unless we are allowed to try and implement our own ideas, are own methods we will never be able to install that in others and we ourselves will not become great leaders.
Clarify the Constraints
In order to allow others to fail intelligently clarify the constraints, time, budget and manpower. Ask yourself what they have to work with?
Do not spoon feed them and never assume you know more than they do even if it is true. Ask them questions on how they would do it.
These people will get lazy if your going to start spoon feeding them. If they know you have the answers they are just going to go to you for the answers. If they actually need to make a decision for themselves don’t spoon them. Let them come up with the ideas. Ask them questions. Don’t give them the answers directly. It will not help them to develop and it will not help them to become better leaders.
Show respect without judgement
Show respect for their methods, ideas and plans without judgement
People process the information differently. They have different emotional drives. They have different ways of perceiving things. Let them try it their way. Don’t judge. Let them try. Be respectful of their methods.
Assist them to Identify their Failure.
If they fail, assist them to identify why that failure is a stepping stone to their success..
Now if they do fail at least help them to identify what that failure meant. Because the failure itself essentially is a stepping stone to a greater success. Make sure they know that. Make sure that when they do fail that its not a bad thing. Make sure that that failure is re-framed into a perspective of a stepping stone to success. That means one failure means that they are now closer to a greater success. To being better leaders. To being more efficient and effective. Each failure can help them to be better. So essentially each failure can be a success. Let them believe that. Let them know that. You as a leader develop that mentality, that attitude of accepting failure as a positive thing and not as a negative thing so long as you learn from it.
Be supportive of their effort
Be supportive of their effort and encourage them to take action. In order to fail intelligently make sure that they know that they are allowed to make mistakes so that they will take more responsibility. When they do learn from their mistakes make sure that they know that it is designed in order to help them to be better in the future. Be supportive in their failure and be supportive in their failures. Develop their confidence by showing them where that failure has a positive impact.
Install Trust
So why are these two keys important. Trust!
In order to develop leadership at all levels of an organisation you must install trust. Trust is not going to happen if you say ok, its ok for you to fail and the moment they do fail – wham, you grab these guys and tell them how stupid they are. How much they cost the company.
Trust comes from allowing people to make mistakes that will help them to be better. Now this does not mean let them to slack off. It means allowing them to take responsibility, to take risks, and be better equipped to handle failures in the future.
If you develop this trust you will also develop their respect. If you develop their respect you will cultivate success. Why?. Because everybody wants to be successful, every single one of us. We desire to be successful, we desire to be trusted and we desire to be respected. When you develop a sense of trust people will want to earn that trust. When you develop a sense of respect, people will live up to those expectations of that respect. With the proper guidance that you give, the attitude of trust, the attidue of respect and the ability to feel successful will develop a strong leadership ability in others.
So if you want to create leadership at all levels of you organisation create the desire for each individual to want to become a great leader. That happens with trust because when people feel that you trust them they will want to earn that trust. When people feel that you respect them they will live up to the expectations of that respect. If you guide people to ‘fail’ successfully, the emotions behind the feeling of success as an individual, as a leader will not only help the people themselves to feel successful but it will change the attitudes and the perceptions of everybody in that organisation. Start failing successfully today!
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