My team failed: what attitude should I adopt?
28 December 2010
Read by 1619 persons
Failure is an opportunity to help your team improve. But only if you don't minimize, dramatize, or deny what happened.
A major client goes to a competitor. Sales are far below targets. A strategic tender is won by a rival. What manager hasn't faced a collective failure during their career? A setback that's hard to swallow. Yet, you must bounce back quickly, especially since this failure can ultimately provide valuable lessons. Instead of despairing, take inspiration from Winston Churchill. "Success is going from failure to failure without losing enthusiasm," said the British politician. Easier said than done, since in France, failure is viewed negatively. Yet, just as you can emerge stronger from personal disappointment, it's possible to help your team grow after a setback.
Conduct a frank diagnosis
Why did this project fail? This is the first question to ask yourself, starting with a personal self-assessment. Carry out this diagnosis without delay; doing it while the situation is fresh will make it easier to gather all the useful information. Don't hesitate to write down your observations. By doing so, you'll more easily break down the chain of small errors that led to the final failure. What didn't work? What were the project's strengths, despite everything? What is your responsibility as a manager? To support your analysis, put events into perspective by comparing your team's actions to those of a more successful team. Above all, strive to be objective and discerning. In a telephone company, the sales director's first reaction was to blame the failure of a new offer on his sales team. Before realizing that it wasn't the individuals who were at fault, but the organization of the entire department.
Gather your team to analyze the causes
Too many managers minimize the impact that failure can have on their employees' morale. Some even think that by discreetly turning the page, the team will forget more easily. The opposite is more likely to happen. If you bury your head in the sand, you'll foster lasting discomfort within the group. It's therefore essential not to deny the event, but rather to fully acknowledge it. From there, you can reflect together on its causes.
This approach, delicate to implement, is a real management challenge. Most people have the bad habit of plunging back into work or blaming external factors (too demanding a client, unfavorable economic context...). The goal is not to identify culprits, but to draw useful lessons. For this, a critical meeting will allow everyone to express their point of view with respect for others. This is what this sales director in the agri-food industry takes care to do: in case of failure, he gathers his teams to analyze precisely what happened. Like him, organize a roundtable where you invite your employees to speak frankly. It is then your responsibility to set an example by showing that you are able to listen to all comments, including those that are disturbing or directly implicate you. A manager of a ready-to-wear brand uses another approach: when his salespeople come back with poor numbers, he accompanies them for a few days in the field to assess the situation himself. This allows him to correct the situation and reassure his salespeople, who thus feel supported in adversity.
Be transparent with your superiors
There's no point in deluding yourself: unless you're completely isolated, your boss is certainly aware of your setbacks. Refusing to talk to him about it won't solve the problem. On the contrary, he expects you and your employees to be open and honest. Don't minimize the seriousness of the situation. Conversely, don't dwell on the failure either. Above all, avoid getting bogged down in pointless justifications that your boss doesn't care about. However, emphasize the lessons you have learned from the experience and outline the action plan you intend to implement.
Establish a development plan
Failure can happen... but not too often. To avoid recurrence, identify areas for improvement. Did you communicate poorly with your employees? Were there delays on the project? List the solutions that will, in the future, address the identified shortcomings. Once your action plan is finalized, ensure regular checks to ensure that directives are followed and intermediate objectives are met. In retrospect, it may be beneficial to implement a continuous improvement process: in a highly competitive market, this is an essential process to maintain your position. At the end of each project (successful or not), a debriefing will identify areas where the team believes it can do better (or differently). Such an approach relies on a high level of mutual trust and respect. During regular one-on-one meetings, employees will be regularly invited to share their difficulties, concerns, or ideas with their manager.
Anticipate obstacles to circumvent them
This is a method systematically used in the aerospace industry where the slightest hitch can have fatal consequences: every incident is considered in order to plan a solution. A mindset that astronauts call "failure-oriented." In other words, designed to anticipate failures. This approach helps to de-dramatize possible setbacks and to face them without pathos if necessary. To integrate this culture of anticipation into your team's DNA, make it a habit, during each meeting, to spend a few minutes reflecting on external events (competitor initiatives, logistical obstacles...) that could jeopardize your project.
Then, imagine solutions to remedy them. Take the example of this director of network support services at Yves Rocher. He manages a completely heterogeneous team: eight people, themselves responsible for teams, with different technical and psychological profiles and activities as varied as product sourcing or DTP. Foreseeing that this diversity of profiles could be a handicap, he organized a "team building" seminar for his team which allowed everyone to get to know each other better and learn to work together. Result: his employees became aware of their differences, but also of their common interests, and a real team spirit developed within the group.
Published April 28, 2010
Posted December 28, 2010
capital.fr
A major client goes to a competitor. Sales are far below targets. A strategic tender is won by a rival. What manager hasn't faced a collective failure during their career? A setback that's hard to swallow. Yet, you must bounce back quickly, especially since this failure can ultimately provide valuable lessons. Instead of despairing, take inspiration from Winston Churchill. "Success is going from failure to failure without losing enthusiasm," said the British politician. Easier said than done, since in France, failure is viewed negatively. Yet, just as you can emerge stronger from personal disappointment, it's possible to help your team grow after a setback.
Conduct a frank diagnosis
Why did this project fail? This is the first question to ask yourself, starting with a personal self-assessment. Carry out this diagnosis without delay; doing it while the situation is fresh will make it easier to gather all the useful information. Don't hesitate to write down your observations. By doing so, you'll more easily break down the chain of small errors that led to the final failure. What didn't work? What were the project's strengths, despite everything? What is your responsibility as a manager? To support your analysis, put events into perspective by comparing your team's actions to those of a more successful team. Above all, strive to be objective and discerning. In a telephone company, the sales director's first reaction was to blame the failure of a new offer on his sales team. Before realizing that it wasn't the individuals who were at fault, but the organization of the entire department.
Gather your team to analyze the causes
Too many managers minimize the impact that failure can have on their employees' morale. Some even think that by discreetly turning the page, the team will forget more easily. The opposite is more likely to happen. If you bury your head in the sand, you'll foster lasting discomfort within the group. It's therefore essential not to deny the event, but rather to fully acknowledge it. From there, you can reflect together on its causes.
This approach, delicate to implement, is a real management challenge. Most people have the bad habit of plunging back into work or blaming external factors (too demanding a client, unfavorable economic context...). The goal is not to identify culprits, but to draw useful lessons. For this, a critical meeting will allow everyone to express their point of view with respect for others. This is what this sales director in the agri-food industry takes care to do: in case of failure, he gathers his teams to analyze precisely what happened. Like him, organize a roundtable where you invite your employees to speak frankly. It is then your responsibility to set an example by showing that you are able to listen to all comments, including those that are disturbing or directly implicate you. A manager of a ready-to-wear brand uses another approach: when his salespeople come back with poor numbers, he accompanies them for a few days in the field to assess the situation himself. This allows him to correct the situation and reassure his salespeople, who thus feel supported in adversity.
Be transparent with your superiors
There's no point in deluding yourself: unless you're completely isolated, your boss is certainly aware of your setbacks. Refusing to talk to him about it won't solve the problem. On the contrary, he expects you and your employees to be open and honest. Don't minimize the seriousness of the situation. Conversely, don't dwell on the failure either. Above all, avoid getting bogged down in pointless justifications that your boss doesn't care about. However, emphasize the lessons you have learned from the experience and outline the action plan you intend to implement.
Establish a development plan
Failure can happen... but not too often. To avoid recurrence, identify areas for improvement. Did you communicate poorly with your employees? Were there delays on the project? List the solutions that will, in the future, address the identified shortcomings. Once your action plan is finalized, ensure regular checks to ensure that directives are followed and intermediate objectives are met. In retrospect, it may be beneficial to implement a continuous improvement process: in a highly competitive market, this is an essential process to maintain your position. At the end of each project (successful or not), a debriefing will identify areas where the team believes it can do better (or differently). Such an approach relies on a high level of mutual trust and respect. During regular one-on-one meetings, employees will be regularly invited to share their difficulties, concerns, or ideas with their manager.
Anticipate obstacles to circumvent them
This is a method systematically used in the aerospace industry where the slightest hitch can have fatal consequences: every incident is considered in order to plan a solution. A mindset that astronauts call "failure-oriented." In other words, designed to anticipate failures. This approach helps to de-dramatize possible setbacks and to face them without pathos if necessary. To integrate this culture of anticipation into your team's DNA, make it a habit, during each meeting, to spend a few minutes reflecting on external events (competitor initiatives, logistical obstacles...) that could jeopardize your project.
Then, imagine solutions to remedy them. Take the example of this director of network support services at Yves Rocher. He manages a completely heterogeneous team: eight people, themselves responsible for teams, with different technical and psychological profiles and activities as varied as product sourcing or DTP. Foreseeing that this diversity of profiles could be a handicap, he organized a "team building" seminar for his team which allowed everyone to get to know each other better and learn to work together. Result: his employees became aware of their differences, but also of their common interests, and a real team spirit developed within the group.
Published April 28, 2010
Posted December 28, 2010
capital.fr
