3 leadership fails that made my business better
Did you set out in business to intentionally fail? I’m hoping the answer is no. Anyone who sets out in business is planning, or at least hoping, to succeed.
Many of us can shy away from the prospect of failure, but I say we should learn to embrace failure, even teach ourselves to expect it, and most importantly - evolve through it. The reality is that everybody will fail at something at some point, in some way, and that is all part of the process of growth, development and learning. Learning what works for our business, and also for ourselves.
Never neglect your own growth in the development of your business.
Every failure is a lesson learned, so I am going to share three of my leadership fails, but crucially I will explain how each enabled me to grow and develop my success further. The third example may shock or even appal you, but I humbly ask that you give me grace as I explain. We can’t all be perfect all the time, and I have chosen to no longer beat myself up with the “expect perfection” stick.
Over my time in business, starting out shining shoes aged just 14, to running food trucks at 20-years-old, to my current investment education company, I have made countless leadership fails. Each of those failures I have used to improve my business and myself along the way.
My leadership Fails...
Failure 1: Hiring The Wrong People
As my current business STARTrading grew, I needed to bring on team members, and my first hire was sensational. He has become our head mentor, looking after and ensuring our students’ success way better than I have. I’m not ashamed to admit that. I may have moments of brilliance, but he is better.
However, my next hire didn’t go as well as hoped. They worked hard initially but it became clear that they were not continuing with the same vigour. They said the right words, but didn’t deliver in their actions. They became an energy drain and a financial one too. It took me many months to work up the courage to have the difficult conversation and let them go. By the time I decided to finally do it, they had handed in their notice! I felt robbed of the lesson of having that conversation but was also relieved that their exit was peaceful.
Lesson learned. Set clear expectations of delivery with employees and if they are not met, remove them from the company as swiftly as possible. A team member that isn’t delivering is a bigger drain on your business than a difficult conversation.
Failure 2: Being Inaccessible
The way I run my business is now very much as a community, but it wasn’t always like that and at the beginning my need for control and lack of experience delegating or sharing the load led to a rather autonomous operation. By allowing myself to distribute duties and use people’s strengths, I have become more open, and by really engaging with clients I have enabled them to feel connected to one another and also to me.
My initial guardedness but subsequent shift into creating a welcoming community may be due to my personal experience of being rejected by a religious community due to my sexuality. I will not run my business like that community, and have made that promise part of my business model. I open my home to my clients and host an annual “Family Summer Party” where they can bring their children and partners for a big bring and share BBQ. It’s not always prudent to share your home address with clients, and that’s a decision to be made by you, but for me this has created a beautiful sense of connection and warmth within my working community.
Operating like this, with barriers removed and a sense of belonging and support, has allowed many people to find a place of belonging with like-minded people who are all looking to improve their lives through financial independence.
This deep sense of community amongst my clients make them feel invested in me, in the company, and in each other. Some of the out-workings from that are that they feel happy to share with me their feedback, both positive and constructive. We are a community, and so I often (quarterly) will ask them for their feedback on what they would like to see us do to improve how we serve and support them.
This feedback has led to lots of small, incremental changes that have compounded to create an incredibly unique and wildly improved investment training community that get results.
Failure 3: Falling Asleep In Front Of Clients
Yes… I actually did this. When I launched STARTrading, the way I delivered training was not the best. The sessions lasted for six hours in one block, and clearly drained everyone, including me! We have evolved a lot since then. Now I spread them over eight weeks.
In those early days I literally couldn’t keep my eyes open in front of clients.
How I didn’t get called out sooner I do not know, and I admit his was a shocking failure on my part. But what it did was force me to do was reassess and focus on my strengths and where my joy was in the business. This led me to hire someone who could help me deliver the content - a past student who I had taken from knowing nothing about investing to being able to generate great returns. They were also a teacher by profession so it felt like a perfect fit, and it was.
I have often found that each step of growth in business has come from my own internal frustrations or, in truth, boredom that have led to innovation and growth.
I’d love to hear what your biggest failure has been and how, even if it hurt, ultimately it made you and your business even better.
Lewis Crompton is a finance expert and founder of STARTrading. With more than a decade's experience trading the financial markets for nearly 10 years. He is a leading voice in the industry, championing safe, systematic and profitable trading techniques. He created and developed the STARTrading Method over many years of trading and also teaching countless people internationally how to become successful traders.
