The Power of Your Words as a Leader

“Failure is not an option.” 

I once worked for a founder who often ended meetings with this phrase. Seemingly a call to action. Something to get the troops going. At face value, the phrase seems perfectly fine. This particular company is in the healthcare space so when the founder said “failure is not an option” her intentions were earnest. She was speaking on behalf of the patients who needed their services. I believe a more aligned phrase would have been “failure is not an option because the service we provide is critical for our community.”  However, what employees heard is “do not fail me.” 

I should note that this company was very fractured and teams worked in silos. For instance everything the marketing team did was for the marketing team’s own good and not for the greater good of the company. So if marketing did come up with a new idea and revenue went down the reaction wasn’t “okay, what can we learn from this?” It was an accusatory “whose idea was this?”

It should be no surprise that the biggest roadblock for this company was innovation. Fear of failure stifled creativity and fear of admonishment curbed accountability. Terrified of being responsible for a “bad idea” no one offered any new ideas. Month after month, we recycled old initiatives with slight tweaks which led to stagnant revenue.

Company culture comes top down. As the leader of a company your words matter. Your actions matter. A rallying cry as simple as “failure is not an option” can have unforeseen consequences and affect not only your bottom line, but also the mental health of your employees. 

Wherever you are in your entrepreneurial journey I encourage you to evaluate your words and your actions and make sure they’re having the intended effect on your company and your people. 

Also, failure should always be an option. Trust me life is more fun that way.