As a leader, you will inevitably face setbacks, challenges, and failures. How you handle them can make or break your credibility, confidence, and resilience.

First… Let’s Face Acceptance

The first step to handle setbacks as a leader is to accept reality and acknowledge the situation. Denying, avoiding, or minimizing the problem will only make it worse and erode your trust and respect. Instead, face the facts, admit your mistakes, and take responsibility for your actions. This will show your integrity, humility, and courage as a leader.

“An excuse is a way of promising ourselves we will have that same issue again.” – Henry Cloud

And Now Let’s Lean In

As leaders, setbacks and frustrations are a daily part of life. Without these setbacks and frustrations, the purpose of leadership would dissipate.

Instead of throwing your hands up in anger, lean into opportunities where you can help navigate yourself and others through these situations.

• Reshaping your goals may benefit you and those around you when it comes to setbacks. What went wrong? What different approach can we take? What is working? What isn’t working? More often than not, people do not take the time to ask these hard questions. Meet with your team to talk through the goals and how reshaping them may produce different results.
• Are you knowledgeable about what went wrong? Is there data you can look back on with these setbacks? We cannot expect everything we touch to run smoothly, especially if we are not doing the necessary task of educating ourselves on how to maintain a growth mindset. Old ways may not always work; be willing to pivot. Be willing to help others understand they must as well. 
• Confidently approach these setbacks, as you are the one people are looking to for guidance. When a crisis presents itself, people always gravitate toward the wise, calm, and confident people. As a leader, find ways to handle situations in a way that brings peace to the situation as well. 
• Are you an efficient worker? Are you an efficient leader? In many cases, the frustrations that come up in the workday are largely the frustrations from tasks not be finished and done in a timely manner. You cannot expect the organization to run well if the daily and weekly tasks are not being done efficiently. 

When setbacks as a leader arise, pause. What can you do in this moment? Is this a NOW issue or a future issue you are hoping to prevent down the road? Both will require different responses, but they will both require YOUR response as a leader.

Lean into the setbacks!

Great leaders never stop growing and learning.

Professional coaching is one great resource to utilize for both developed leaders as well as new leaders.

At Converge, we want to see you succeed as a leader! Through our professional coaching, we ensure that you succeed thus leading your company and those around you to succeed as well.  It can be isolating sometimes as a leader. You are asked to make big decisions. Through our professional coaching program we allow leaders to talk through the stresses they feel everyday with professionals that have dealt with the same struggles.

Reach out to us today to set up a Discovery Call! We at Converge look forward to seeing you succeed.