Why Your Team Needs to See You Fail

Hey Spark Family, 

If there’s one thing I’ve learned about leadership, it’s that how we handle failure often says more about us than how we handle success. Recently, a leader asked me, “Jackie, how do I deal with mistakes in a way that sets the right example for my team?” It’s a question I love, and here’s why: it’s something that doesn’t get talked about enough.

I’ll be honest—early in my career, I thought that as a leader, I had to have all the answers and make no mistakes. If things didn’t go as planned, I’d just try to fix it quietly and move on. But I learned that pretending to be “perfect” was exhausting, and it actually held me back from connecting with my team. When I started sharing my missteps—and the lessons that came with them—something amazing happened: my team opened up, too. They felt safe, knowing they didn’t have to be perfect either.

Embracing Failure as a Growth Tool

We’ve all been there—a plan goes sideways, or a decision doesn’t land the way we’d hoped. The instinct is to sweep it under the rug. But what if we saw failure as an essential part of growth? Being open about our mistakes doesn’t make us less credible; it makes us human. And that’s where real trust begins.

When leaders see mistakes as stepping stones—not stopping points—they foster resilience and innovation. Sharing your failures sends a powerful message: “We’re here to learn and grow together, not to chase perfection.”

A Simple Framework for Navigating Mistakes

Handling failure doesn’t have to be complicated. Here’s a framework I use to turn mistakes into stepping stones:

• Acknowledge – Take ownership, but don’t get stuck in it. Show your team that accountability is about learning and moving forward, not blaming yourself.
• Reflect – Ask yourself, “What did this teach me?” Reflecting on the experience can reveal insights that inform future decisions and strategies.
• Share and Apply – Share the lesson with your team so they can learn from it too, and then take action based on what you learned. When you adapt after a mistake, it gives purpose to every misstep.

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