Genuinely See Failure As Feedback

One of the pillars of what Carol Dweck calls having a “growth mindset” is the way we interpret poor results. A growth mindset sees lessons in poor performance and uses it to be better moving forward. It implies that results can change, that we can change, and that our level of skill or ability to generate a certain result aren’t permanent (as opposed to having a ‘Fixed Mindset’.)

Many people talk about a growth mindset as being able to bounce back quickly from failure, and I don’t think that’s fair to say. ‘Failure’ is just a conclusion that you can choose to assign to a certain result. Nothing is a failure until you get discouraged, give up, and choose to make it so. 

When we don’t hit our goals or meet expectations, which happens all the time, it’s a value-rich opportunity. There’s so much insight to be gained in our shortcomings than our successes. But our negativity bias makes it harder to see as we interpret results in a way that protects our sense of self…

This is what causes us to label our performance as a failure.

But let’s capitalize on this moment and begin to see failure as feedback. How do you do that?

I had a really bad sales call last week. I was unprepared, fumbling over my words, and got completely off track from my strategy. Rather than wallowing and being overly self-critical, I chose to see the opportunity for improvement instead. 

With that awareness I took immediate action to polish up some of my speaking points, review my game plan and sales strategy, and dial in some of the parts that got unhinged. And because I took corrective action to shore up some of my weaknesses, the sales call I had 2 days later went so much better!

Rather than allowing a bad result to make you emotional and self-critical, seek to understand what caused the result. Do it in an unbiased, 3rd party way as if you were helping a friend.

And I encourage you to try it now! Think back to the last time where you fell short. From the outside looking in, what caused it? What in particular didn’t go well? What could you have done differently? 

Ironically, detaching from the outcome helps you to achieve it.