If you want competency, don’t preach failure …

Have you ever found yourself caught up in teaching an idea or concept, or passing on a platitude, without ever checking the truth of it simply because everyone else was sharing the info as if it were Gospel?

It happens all the time, and one of the most popular untruths being taught today (especially by leaders, for other leaders) is the idea that failure is the best teacher of success.

That’s far from the truth.

In fact, the simplest of anecdotal evidence, paired with real facts, shows quite the opposite to be true.

Failure can be an effective way of teaching a person how not to fail in that same fashion in the future. But failure has sent more people into comfort zones, diving for safety. or downward spirals and ugly crashes than it has in sparking them forward to search out success.

If failure was the prominent means of gaining success, it would be the leading course taught in university business courses across the country. Corporate recruiters would be searching for persons with track records of failure. After all, they would be the most likely persons about to bust out great success!

Think about it, when you hire a financial advisor, are you concerned whether the person has a strong record of making good investments rather than bad ones?

When you hire a baby sitter, do you select a person who is competent and has reasonably good judgment, or a person you know fails at much at what they attempt?

When you pick out a mentor within your profession, do you seek out someone who has more failures than successes, or more successes than failures? The person who has significant achievements, or the guy who never got off the ground floor?

When you search for a church home, do you look for a church whose leadership meets biblical standards for church leaders, or are you comfortable with pastors and elders who live in sin?

In your own job, just how many failures could you rack up in a row before the boss hands you your final paycheck?

Even those leaders who carelessly throw around platitudes about failure don’t practice what they preach when hiring people for their own staff. They don’t search for people who consistently fail, but those who more consistently make good decisions that lead to success.

The value of failure has its limits.

Most successes are not built upon the scrap heap of failures, but on pursuing the building of consistent competency.

CEO’s and hiring managers look for people who are competent and have a track record of success. But with that, they also look for leaders who aren’t afraid to fail by taking on reasonable risks in pursuing success.

That’s the difference of the message. You’ll miss out on many opportunities and much success if you allow the fear of failure to stop you. If you consistently fail, that’s likely a very clear message you’re in the wrong field and need to make a change. But the best of leaders understand that the most competent of persons will occasionally have their failures.

Occasional failure is normal. We’re human, failure will happen.

But it should never be accepted as a norm.

Just as competency should be sought and built professionally, holiness should be sought and developed spiritually.

Leaders should encourage the pursuit of competency, or holiness, rather than constantly praising a false value of failure.

Scotty