Here's why failure is critical to succeeding as a high-achieving woman. Creating positive shifts in your career or business start by stepping away from perfectionism and creating more opportunities to fail. Here's my number one lesson from my work as a business innovation lead.
As an innovation lead your job is to design funding programmes that target the right type of businesses so that they can get the investment they need to scale and grow. My work as an innovation lead delivering millions of pounds of funding also means engaging with the businesses who are on their path to growth. The number one trait I have observed (my research brain loves spotting a pattern) is that these entrepreneurs have an appetite for failure and and even greater appetite for innovation. They are prepared to take calculated risks and acknowledge that failure is part of the process. No business has a linear path towards growth and along the journey (even when they do secure the investment they need) they will face roadblocks and challenges along the way. This is a natural part of the process. It's about being flexible, accepting you are going to fail along the journey and being able to be flexible and shift as challenges arise. The more you do it, the more you get better at innovating.
Three takeaways
The more you try new things, the more comfortable you will become with failure and you will increase your probability for success
Innovate in your everyday by doing one thing differently - try saying no to a project, end a meeting 15mins early to work on something you'd love to do and see the results
Be flexible - accept things are not going to go to plan and pivot if they do. The more you pivot the more you will develop your own strategy or framework for pivoting in a measured way.
If you'd like to explore a good read on the topic here's one for you:
It's the story of Amazon from some of its key leaders Colin Bryan and Bill Carr (the Amazon guys of the 90s). Their time at the company was one where innovation was in the DNA of the business. The story explores the principles that lead to Amazon's success but offers important lessons on failure. Amazon Working Backwards
Hi! I'm Dr Sam Lynch. I'm a personal brand expert for high-achieving women and I want to help you unlock your career and business ambitions. We provide career and business coaching and strategy specifically for women.
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