Get past your fear of failure, accept risk and grow your brand. Instead, most of us focus on praise… especially in the business world.
Who doesn’t love hearing customer raves? “We love doing business with you.” “Your service is excellent.” “Thank you for going the extra mile.” “I love your products.” Yes, these words bring a smile to every business leader’s face and are the ones passed around in company meetings when customer feedback is solicited. “We’re doing great,” you’re told,a nd soon you’re on to the next topic. But, if this is all you pay attention to as a brand leader, you are failing your company. You are failing to seize the power of failure.
Brands need to embrace failure. All aspects of it, at all levels or the organization. From taking the kind of risks that could lead to failure to encouraging employees and customers to talk about it when the brand has let them down to conducting thorough and honest assessments of what isn’t working and why. Hopefully, mistakes will happen, and they are a natural part of your brand’s DNA. The real mistake is thinking your brand or company is “too big to fail,” or as Malcolm Gladwell wrote in a New Yorker article in July, “the psychology of overconfidence.”
What is your brand doing to create some type of “failure feedback loop” to listen and live with your errors? Don’t be afraid of what you’ll find. Rather, think of it as a chance to learn, grow and potentially broaden your brand’s horizons and reach.
About Wendi McGowan