Empower Your Team Through Failure | Why "Try Again" Builds Better Teams

Have you ever been in a situation where you're racing towards a project deadline and in the last minute you discover a critical error?

Maybe someone on your team missed a step in the process or maybe it was because a new hire on your team underestimated the complexity of the task.

In these situations, as a manager, your initial instinct is going to be to swoop in and fix things yourself.

But hold on a second.

While it's very tempting to become the hero and save the day, this takeover approach can actually hinder your team's growth and development in the long run.

That's why in this episode, you're going to learn a powerful strategy for building a resilient and successful team.

Hey everyone. I'm Doug Howard. I'm a leadership coach and consultant for engineering companies and engineering leaders, but I use this YouTube channel to teach leaders in any industry, how to unlock the full potential of your team.

Each episode focuses on the human side of management by exploring topics like emotional intelligence, influence, and motivation. So if you're a manager who wants to level up your leadership skills, make sure you hit that subscribe button.

Consequences of Taking Over for Your Team

Now let's face it, swooping in, taking over and being the hero every time you see a mistake on your team might feel efficient in the short term, but consider the long term consequences.

I remember early on in my management career, I had a very talented, but a very inexperienced team member who made a significant error on a presentation that we were delivering to a client.

Now, instead of letting her revise and present again, I took over and I felt like in the moment I could explain it better anyway. So why not? The presentation did go smoothly from that point on. But at the same time, she felt extremely discouraged and her confidence took a major hit. It took a lot of work together to rebuild her trust and empower her to take ownership of her future projects.

As a manager, when you constantly take over like this, instead of letting people make mistakes and learn from them, you're sending the message that you don't trust your team's capabilities. This can quickly erode their confidence and their initiative, and it's going to lead to a fear of admitting mistakes throughout your team.

You're going to see this downward spiral effect where you're going to see your team become less likely to take risks, and they're going to become less likely to try new things, which is ultimately going to hinder their growth and development. This all leads to more work from you in the long run, because then you're just creating an environment where you have to clean up their mistakes every time they make a mistake. And because they're not learning from their mistakes, they're just going to keep making more mistakes, which is going to mean you're going to have to be fixing their mistakes more often. You see how this kind of creates a downward spiral role that you can't really get out of?

This reminds me of another time from earlier in my management career, where I didn't really get this and I was managing a large high visibility project. It had huge visibility throughout our entire company. There were extremely tight deadlines.

Now, as I was managing this project, I had this paranoia about it, whenever a team member encountered any type of challenge, I felt pressure to jump in and solve it myself, even if they weren't directly asking for my help. I just wanted to do everything I could to make sure this project kept moving smoothly and I could keep it on target.

While I did manage to deliver the product on time, I ended up completely burnt out. And I also ended up being very resentful towards my team about it because I ended up doing a lot of the work. It was because I was swooping in and doing it every time they encountered a problem. At the same time, here, I think I am being the hero helping everyone. But when I took a step back and looked at my team, I could tell that they were all very disengaged and they were very uninvested with the project success.

When we hit our milestone, I was exhausted, but I was super excited. This meant a lot of good things for our company. I knew that we're going to get big bonuses from this. So I was expecting to see that same level of excitement from my team. And they looked instead dejected. Like they didn't really participate in the project at all.

Constant takeovers like this are a quick path to micromanagement, which creates a stressful and demotivating work environment for you and everyone on your team. You become so overloaded with tasks that it leaves no time for strategic planning or development of your own team. So it creates again this downward spiral where you're being left to fix everything because you've created that expectation throughout your team.

Empowering Your Team Through the Try Again Approach

So what's the alternative? Instead of taking the superhero approach or the rescue mission approach, let's shift your focus towards empowering your team. We're going to do this by using the try again technique to transform a mistake into a valuable learning opportunity for someone on your team.

By allowing your team members to tackle their own challenges, on their own, even if they stumble initially, you're fostering resilience and problem solving skills. They're going to learn to analyze their mistakes and develop strategies to improve upon their mistakes. It also teaches them ownership and accountability for their work. When they overcome a challenge through their own efforts, their confidence soars as well.

Later on in my career as a manager, once I learned from these mistakes that I just told you about, I had an experience where I was working with someone who was very new on my team, and they were very hesitant to take on new, complex tasks. They were very worried about failing, and I think I had created that environment without realizing it.

But instead of me taking over the project because they wouldn't take it on themselves, I encouraged that person to research and brainstorm solutions and present her approach before she got too far into the project. Of course she encountered some bumps along the way, but with my guidance and support, she ultimately delivered a fantastic finished product. She actually was incredibly proud of what she accomplished in the process, which piqued her confidence too.

Now the reason I'm sharing this is because when you empower your team through a try again approach, you're creating a more engaged, productive work environment. Your team members become invested in their own success. So they begin taking more ownership of their work, which frees you up to focus on higher level tasks, like strategizing and guiding the overall direction of your team.

Implementing the Try Again Approach

So this is all fine and dandy, but you're probably wondering, how do we actually deliver an effective try again message to your team? Let's create a tactical framework around this.

Step one is focus on support, not blame.

So when you encounter someone who's struggling on your team, you could say something like, Hey, Tim, let's talk about what happened with project X, Y, and Z. I want to understand what happened and I want to see how I can best support you moving forward.

This approach frames the conversation as a collaborative learning experience where you're fostering trust and open communication. It also shows your team member that you're there to help them grow, not to criticize them.

Step two is ask open ended questions.

Things like, What do you think went wrong here? How can we catch this sooner next time? What could you have done differently? What could we have done differently? What did you learn from this experience? Asking open ended questions encourages critical thinking and ownership.

Basically, you're asking them the questions that they're not thinking of on their own, which is going to expand their thinking and help them learn from this versus this being something that they just want to forget and move on from. By prompting them to analyze the situation, you empower them to actually identify solutions and develop a plan for improvement.

Step three is offer guidance and resources.

You can say something like, I know this is a complex task, so let's take a look at some resources that might be helpful. I'm also available to brainstorm solutions with you for help if you need it.

Providing guidance and resources makes them feel supported, which creates psychological safety, and that's important because it demonstrates your commitment to their success. Training materials, online tutorials, or even a dedicated brainstorming session with them can equip them with the tools they need to excel in their second attempt.

Step four, set clear expectations.

For example, you could say something like, let's revise this section by tomorrow, and let's make sure it aligns with the project requirements. Do you have any questions?

Clear expectations like this ensures that everyone is on the same page. So be sure to outline what needs to be done differently on the next try, and make sure you set a realistic deadline too.

Last but not least, make sure you confirm that they understand you, and that they're on the same page with you, because this fosters mutual accountability and prevents confusion.

Remember this, creating a culture of learning from failure takes time and effort. So be patient, celebrate successes, big and small, but most importantly, believe in your team's ability to grow. By empowering your team through try again messages like this, you're fostering a resilient and high performing team that thrives on challenges.

​But effective communication goes beyond just empowering your team. What if you want to ensure that your team members truly understand your message and the meaning behind your message?

In my next episode, I'll be diving into a simple communication technique that guarantees you and the other person are always on the same page. It's called the empathic listening technique. It's a complete game changer for managers who want to make sure they're delivering clear and concise communication with your team or anyone for that matter. If you want to learn more, check out the next episode. It's called How To Make Sure People Listen And Understand You. I'll drop a link in the description below. Thanks for watching.

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