I’ve been watching football again! The other day I saw Liverpool play their hearts out against Chelsea in the first leg of the semi-finals of the Champions League. They were motivated, dedicated and displayed real team spirit. But in the last few seconds of the game, an own-goal turned victory into a disappointing draw. Not only will the player who scored the own-goal feel extremely bad for letting the team and the fans down, but also the team will feel deflated after losing a game they dominated and thought they had won.
However, the player shouldn’t feel too guilty because he played his heart out throughout the game. The true test of any person, team or organisation is how they cope with adversity, disappointment and setbacks. If you use the knowledge you gain from failure you can bounce back and win next time and this comes down to how we attribute the causes of the failure – it has to be positive!!
Of course, being optimistic and reframing events positively comes more naturally to some people than others – but both of these ‘habits’ can be developed and strengthened. For example, when we fail the “attributional style” that we adopt is critical. Attributing failure to factors that are permanent (“I will always be bad at this”) and global (“It’s not just this – but all of these kinds of things”) mean that we feel much worse and less positive than if we see it as a temporary blip that is very specific to this situation. So, maintaining optimism relies on seeing failures as temporary and specific (to the situation). Of course it has to be valid - if we don’t really believe, or are unrealistic about events, the resulting optimism will be fragile and unrealistic.
The way your workforce processes failure is just as important as how it deals with success and if you get it right your business will be more successful in the long run. How we cope with our setbacks is a true reflection of our character as individuals, as teams, and as organisations. As the Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius once said “Let not your mind run on what you lack as much as on what you have already”. Today he might have said “Stay positive!”
