The joy of allowing failure

"Not enough leaders look at their own responsibility and failure in a person not being successful"

Elbert Hubbard “The greatest mistake you can make in life is continually to be fearing you will make one.”

When looking for workers, one of the things some leaders say is “I don’t want anyone to go through the grief and pain I went through”, forgetting it was the very grief and pain that helped mature and train them for leadership. Or sometimes they say the person is too young, or the person is far too busy… they have just had another child or have started a demanding job. Another big negative is when leaders say “Last time we gave them a job they did not cope” (sounds a little like John Mark) or “They have not been in the church long enough”.

One of the things we must get straight when creating an empowering culture is that, in the main, we must not rule people out before they have had a chance to comment. I remember asking a busy heart consultant who turned up for everything in the church how he managed it (he also had 8 children!) He said, “Busy people will find time if they think it is worth doing.”

I also have noticed that we are very one-dimensional in how we define a job. Churches often act more like multinational companies with standard operating procedures than small-to-medium size volunteer organisations. A church with an empowering culture is as flexible as possible on how a task is delivered. This puts the emphasis on creating a job description that is tailored for the person and takes into account their gifts and the season of life they are in.

What about when a person has failed in a previous job or has let us down? The first thing leaders must ask is, “Did we give them the wrong job or not support them enough?” Not enough leaders look at their own responsibility and failure in a person not being successful. Often the failure is part of a person’s growth, as they can learn as much from the failure as from the success. This should mean they could be asked again to do another job and not written off.

The joy of allowing failure

Elbert Hubbard “The greatest mistake you can make in life is continually to be fearing you will make one.”