How to deal with setbacks or smal failures; and the importance of damage control and accountability in leadership

Effective steps in dealing with failure

The qualities and status of leadership do not automatically ensure success or guarantee the absence of mistakes. Things can go wrong even if everything is done right. A good leader will not panic in crisis. The following are some of the steps that are effective in dealing with setbacks or failure:

1. Try to find positive aspects in the setbacks or failures, and see things in more positive light; look for something good in what happened. Focus on what has been achieved, rather than on what has not been achieved.
2. Look at the setback or failure analytically. Make a list of your mistakes and think of how to improve your way of doing things. After gathering the facts, step back and ask yourself, what did I learn from this?
3. Write down the things you need to work on and make a plan for addressing your mistakes. Once you come up with a plan, a way of adjusting your expectations and actions, you can begin to address the situation.
4. Stay confident. Separate the failure from your identity and don't make it personal. Personalizing failure can wreak havoc on your self-esteem and confidence. No matter what others are saying, don't let failure define you. Don't let others influence your own self-worth.
5. Every organisation has its own doomsayers or prophets of doom. These people don't have the interest of the organisation or group at heart. A leader must be able to deal with any form of criticism. You have to know where the feedback is coming from and understand the intentions of the person who is giving it. Understand that person's true motives and look for the grain of truth to it. If the criticism is constructive, then it's intended to guide you and to help you improve as a leader. If the criticism has no basis whatsoever, then the best thing you can do is to ignore it completely.
6. There are four things that you, as a leader, must inspire in yourself and your subordinates that will stop fear, panic and stress; these are confidence, purpose, meaning, and self-respect. Unless the leader supports the subordinate in front of others, the subordinate will lose confidence. This may prevent others from accepting delegated authority for fear of failure and of criticism.
7. Effective leaders tell their subordinates that failure is part of life, that failure is to be treated as a learning experience, and that they would stand by the subordinates even if others criticise them. It is worthwhile to delegate where appropriate, but a good leader appreciates that he is ultimately responsible for the failure of the subordinate in the use of delegated authority. Delegation of authority is one of the most powerful sign of trust and respect for subordinates.

Damage control in leadership

When something goes wrong, a good leader will first stand by the person in charge in public and do whatever damage control he can do on the spot. Later on, at an appropriate time, he may take up the issue with the subordinate privately. Damage control is an attempt to offset or minimize damage to reputation, credibility, or public image caused by a situation that went wrong. Success in damage control depends on:

1. Your capacity for handling bad news. Understand what has happened and remember that to accept that you are not perfect. It is not the mistake itself, but how a mistake is handled that forms the lasting impressions.
2. Your ability to bite your tongue. This lessens your chance of saying a lot more than you need to. It allows you to collect your thoughts and therefore be more cautious or more circumspect in what you say. Have the instinct to know what should or should not be said; know when or when not to say it.
3. Your ability to resist the urge to act impulsively. Analyse the crisis. Once you have analysed the crisis, take a moment to think about the whole situation and what reaction you want. Self-discipline is the ultimate key to effective damage control.
4. Your ability to handle the situation discreetly. The importance of confidentiality in damage control can never be overemphasized.  Even if you have nothing to hide, discretion is still the better part of damage control. If you let everyone know what you know, you will blow any chance of using your own insight effectively.
5. Your ability to use effectively what you know about others. This will help you to efficiently control what they need to know about the situation.
6. Your acceptance of responsibility. This means you take the stick or whip for all the mistakes and failures. You take the blame for all the failures of the subordinate. A leader who blames his subordinates and throws them under the bus to save his own skin is not worth his salt. "You are on your own," is the term used by those who want to ran away from their responsibility. Delegation of authority is not a trick to use subordinates to escape from one's responsibilities. Good leaders are right most of the time, but they also know when they are wrong and are not afraid to admit it. They know things can go wrong even if everything is done right.

President Kennedy ordered the invasion of Cuba with the help of exiled Cubans living in the USA. Intelligence reports had told the President that once these troops land in Cuba, the people of Cuba would rise in revolt against President Fidel Castro of Cuba. When the troops landed, nothing of this kind happened and the invasion was a fiasco. Instead of blaming the Intelligence Agency, President Kennedy accepted before the public full responsibility for the military misadventure. This one act of not blaming his subordinates salvaged to a great extent the loss of face for American President.

Accountability is having to explain your action or performance to the person from whom authority was obtained. It means accepting responsibility for your own actions. Everyone has a boss, from the president of a country, who can be fired after an election, to a garden boy.  If you are going to hold others accountable for their actions, then you need to be willing to accept accountability of your own. You are accountable for the actions of your subordinates 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Accountability is about doing the right thing based on the good and the bad. It also means knowing who to blame, and a willingness to make tough decisions because you are committed to enforcing correct values.

For every action there is a judgment. You must act responsibly, for you are responsible, you are accountable, and you must answer for what you think and what you do.