Friday, May 13, 2011

The Right Way to Respond to Failure

It's been over two years that I've updated my blog on a motivating management-related article but this HBR blog article prompted me to get started with my blogging efforts again.

Here's the HBR excerpt of the blog-article by Peter Bregman on "The Right Way to Respond to Failure".

When people fail at work, your instinct may be to go into problem-solving mode. You search out reasons for the failure, try to figure out how to avoid it in the future, and draw out the lessons to be learned. But when people who have failed are in the depths of despair, they need empathy more than your rationalizations and encouragements about the future.

A concerned response is not only compassionate but productive. Empathy communicates trust, and people perform best when they feel trusted. Next time one of your people falls short, listen. Don't interrupt, don't offer advice, don't say that it will be all right. Just reflect back what you hear them say. There will be time to solve the problem later.

Click here to read the complete article. I'm sure there's something to learn as a manager, parent, friend or as any other relationship.