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The Leader · № 16

Led Through Failure

Led a team through a project that went badly, lost the game, missed the target, had a public failure, held the team together, and the group continued.

The idea

Failure tests whether your kid leads people or just leads when it's easy. The team needs to see them not blame anyone, not check out, not minimize. Have your kid say out loud, in front of the group, "this didn't work, here's what we'll do next." That sentence is the milestone. Everything else follows from how it lands. Said well, the team rallies. Said badly, the team scatters.

Steps
  1. Identify a real failed project. Don't engineer one.
  2. Hold a team conversation: what happened, what we'll do next.
  3. Don't blame any individual. Hold yourself accountable.
  4. Continue. The group's continuing is the milestone.
What counts

A real group failure led through to continuation, with the team intact. A short writeup is plenty.