Strategies run their course. Ideas get dusty. Technology is overtaken and just because something or someone was successful at first, doesn’t mean it wasn’t just a blip on the horizon. In fact, looking at successful companies and peeling back a layer or two, we think you’ll find that for every great success story, there’s been a boatload of failures before it.

On the other hand, if you look at companies that don’t have stellar successes, and you peel back their layers, we think you’ll find that complacency has set in and that people feel ‘entitled’ to success, rather than motivated to work for it.

So what’s the difference between successful companies with the scars to prove it and companies that are less successful or indeed, companies for whom success is always out of reach?

Could it be that in some companies, individuals and teams have the culture and support systems that actually support, in a funny way, losing? How incredible! Instead of scrambling for self-protection and abandoning the group to cover one’s backside, or hiding problems or using a southward trajectory to let plans, service, facilities or investments deteriorate, could it be that some individuals and teams can put losing into perspective because they are prepared for it?

Failure is inevitable and often out of our control. But we can choose to understand it, prepare for it and most importantly, recover from it.

The key to dealing with any failure seems to be the creation of an environment where employees feel safe admitting and reporting failures. But let’s be clear, failure can waste money, destroy morale, infuriate customers, damage reputations, harm careers and sometime lead to tragedy.

What do you do if you don’t happen to be in one of the enlightened companies described above?

As an individual, it’s pretty clear. You have to be active in your own rescue. It’s up to you to enhance your own mental toughness early on in your career, and to proactively foster the relationships that create a collaborative, accountable environment around YOU. Personal confidence and integrity are hallmarks of people who can manage to lose and turn the loss into a personal or organisational success. If you do experience a failure, you’ll need to find that inner confidence to get you back on your feet. Once you know you can get up, you can continue to build your own strength and resilience. You can draw your biggest lessons from your toughest losses. You just need to be brave about it.

(marketingmoves is a specialist IT marketing recruitment company that recruits Only the best marketers.Only for IT and Telecoms.)

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