Ever had a leader who let you fail so you could learn? I remember a boss I had years ago who let me make a choice that was wrong. It was a safe failure because I was able to bounce back and learn from the mistake. I didn’t realize it at the time, but that failure allowed me to learn so much more about myself than I would have if that leader had just told me how to solve the problem.
Sometimes, even if you have the best answer as the leader, it doesn’t mean it will work out the same way for the individual actually doing the work.
Think of how empowering it is to have a project you have a safe space to blow up. It’s amazing what people can do when they feel safe. No one really thinks about it, but if you have the power to fail, you have the power to try something different. When your people know they can count on you to have their back when they try something new, there is a kind of calm that sweeps over the group. That allows the anxious part of the brain to shut off a bit and take up less space.
One of the many jobs a leader has is to ensure their group’s gardens aren’t becoming overrun with weeds. Hear me out here, gardens are a great way to look at what is happening in the brain of an over worked employee.
You’ve just started a job. It’s as if you have half an acre in your yard. It’s filled with beautiful flowers and big strong trees planted there by years of lessons. Both school and life have filled your brain with a lovely garden of memories to walk through. You attend to your yard and beautiful plants every day, giving each corner of your yard the once over to be sure it has all it needs to be successful.
Now it’s been a few months and you notice something is happening in a small area in the southwest corner of your yard. You’re not completely sure why there are some odd-looking plants that continue to cover up the lovely purple tulips you planted there three summers ago while studying intermediate accounting.
You begin to clear out the plants you don’t know much about. The stubborn plants continue to bloom and take over again and again. You continue to dig them out and kill them with poisons. Even after digging up everything in the corner and trying to replant the tulips, the odd, viny, creeping weeds continue to grow. It is only after a long day weeks after first finding the weed in the southwest corner of your yard that you turn around and notice other parts of your garden are starting to fall apart. Other types of weeds sneak in and eat up the healthy soil you added to the clay years ago.
After all that hard work, your garden, although still having the foundational plants you initially planted, is starting to look more like weeds. Instead of weeds, we should be tending to each area of the garden to add plants or help the older plants get stronger. In other words, keep learning. Our brains need stimulation and a safe space to grow. Without a safe space people tend to shrink, focusing or worrying on one area.
This is what happens to an employee who is only focused on one thing. This could be fear of failure, or a singular focused project, or an outside experience being brought into work. Employees should come to work feeling safe and valued. Just like with your own garden. Check in all the areas of your garden to be sure it is getting the sun and soil it needs to succeed. Check in on your people and check in on yourself. If your employees feel safe, you’ll find they open up more, give you candid feedback, and think outside of the box for the department. These are foundational to any great department.
What is Accounts Payable? 