Why Failure is Essential to Growth
Failure is how we learn and grow. It’s how we move forward. However, people often confuse role failure with self-confidence, self-esteem, or self-concept. Failure to obtain a meeting or close a deal is simply role failure – not a reflection of who we are. While we may fail within a role, as human beings, we remain perfect and complete. Learning to embrace failure is one of the toughest yet most essential lessons in sales.
Why Failure is Necessary for Success
Winning might seem like the opposite of failure, but in reality, failure is what makes winning possible. Here’s why:
Failure teaches us invaluable lessons.
Failure propels us forward.
Everyone experiences failure, even in childhood – like when learning to ride a bike.
If you hadn’t fallen off your bike while learning, you couldn’t have mastered riding. This concept applies to all roles in life, including sales.
The Universal Truth: Failure Happens in Every Role
Whether you’re a salesperson, a sales leader, or in any other role, failure is inevitable. The key question isn’t whether we will fail – because we will. The real question is:
Will we learn, grow, and adapt based on what we’ve learned from failure?
Avoiding failure only holds us back. When we run from failure or deny its existence, we also run away from opportunities for growth and success. The most successful people are those who embrace failure and learn from it.
The Sales Leader's Role in Managing Failure
For sales leaders, managing how team members perceive failure is critical. Salespeople may sometimes confuse role failure with a lack of self-esteem or self-confidence.
How Sales Leaders Can Help:
Clarify the distinction between role failure and personal failure.
Reinforce that failure in a role does not define a person’s inherent worth.
Encourage team members to see themselves as 10 out of 10 in terms of self-worth, no matter the role performance.
This approach builds a healthy self-concept, fostering resilience and a willingness to take risks.
Maintaining a Healthy Self-Concept in the Face of Role Failure
Your self-concept – how you see yourself – should remain strong regardless of role performance. Here’s why:
Roles fluctuate: You perform countless roles in life, and your performance will naturally go up and down.
Self-worth is constant: A role failure does not impact your value as a human being.
Healthy self-concept breeds success: By maintaining a 10/10 self-concept, you stay open to risks, willing to fail, and ready to learn, which ultimately leads to success.
Growth Requires Risk, Discomfort, and Occasional Failure
Growth in any role – especially in sales – happens outside your comfort zone. To grow, you must:
Take risks.
Accept that failure is part of the process.
Learn and adapt based on the lessons failure offers.
For sales leaders, modeling this mindset is key to fostering success among their teams.
Building a Foundation for Breakthroughs
When sales leaders embrace and teach the value of failure, they create a foundation for breakthroughs in individual and team performance. These personal breakthroughs lead to predictable, sustainable success – both financially and organizationally.
Failure isn’t the enemy. It’s the teacher. Embrace it, learn from it, and use it to propel your sales performance to new heights.
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