Leadership lessons from sport – rethinking ‘failure’
August 5th 2021
This last month has been one of sporting highs and lows, or of ‘agony and ecstasy’ as the papers like to say.
It’s humbling to hear of the sacrifices and passion of not only the sportsmen and women but their families and supporters too. We have superb examples in Tom Daley, our most decorated diver, finally achieving his childhood dream of an Olympic gold medal with his diving partner Matty Lee after years of dedication, determination and medals elsewhere, and Bethany Shriever getting gold in women’s BMX racing, despite her funding being withdrawn and so working as a teaching assistant and crowdfunding in order to continue her passion.
The messages for us are clear – hard work pays off, commitment is king, passion can overcome obstacles, and so many more. But who cannot have failed to have groaned with despair for Katarina Johnson-Thompson, pulling out of the heptathon after a calf muscle injury while competing, the GB women’s hockey team conclusive loss, and Jessie Knight, a former primary teacher turned 400m hurdler who firstly had disrupted training and preparation as she had to isolate as she had been in close contact with someone on her flight to Japan who had tested positive for Covid-19, and then tripped as she approached the first hurdle in her heat, shattering her Olympic dream. They all ‘failed’ to achieve their dreams despite considerable efforts.
Given the fantastic achievements (and some heartaches) this Olympics we might be forgiven for forgetting about the Euros which dominated the previous month – was it really only 3 weeks ago that the England football team reached the final of the Euros? Of course, this was followed the very next day with the spotlight on the pernicious racism from some sections of ‘supporting fans’, who preferred to focus negatively upon the individuals responsible for 3 missed penalties rather than the best team outcome in 55 years. As Gareth Southgate said, we’ve been fourth, then third, now second, in major championships – and next year is the World Cup so watch this space…
Thomas Edison said failure taught him 10,000 ways not to make a light bulb. Making failure work for us instead of against us, starts with acknowledging and owning what we have done or has happened. Henry Ford also said that ‘Failure is the opportunity to begin again more intelligently’ .
One missed goal, messed-up project or set of A level results does not define you as a person. I ‘failed’ my A levels and eventually became the Head of an independent girls’ boarding school. The experience of ‘failure’ made me the determined and tenacious person I am today, with a life-long passion for learning and a determination that the young people and adults I was responsible for had the opportunity to learn how to learn in a way I didn’t, and saw learning as their life’s work to be ready for change, not just to pass through hoops society determines is necessary at one moment. It is what makes me passionate about leadership development, reframing our experiences as learning opportunities.
How we handle our setbacks, the mindset we bring to them, is the starting point of making us stronger as leaders and people. If I had sailed through aged 18 perhaps I wouldn’t have had the passion and drive for what I am doing now, wouldn’t have understood those students and adults finding their challenges hard, would have been less patient with them trying, and trying, and trying, until they got there. One of the highlights of my teaching career was seeing the GCSE grade C Maths result of a girl in her Upper Sixth year – finally achieved after diligently taking it every November and June sitting since Year 11 until she managed it.
As the great Stoics would say – and probably Edison, Ford and no doubt Southgate too – when faced with setbacks we need to ask ourselves, ‘what can I learn from this? how will I do things differently next time? what qualities and values will I be grateful to have developed as a result of this experience?’ We truly learn more from things not going quite to plan than things going smoothly and, if we acknowledge our difficulties and own them and reflect upon our learning, we will be better leaders as a result. That being said, I hope things go as smoothly as possible for as many as possible with both A level and GCSE results published next week!
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