FranklinCovey Blog | Integrity

How to Learn from Failures

Wednesday, December 9th, 2009 | From the Desk of Stephen R. Covey | 8 Comments

I think that successful people often share similar characteristics. Over time I have come to believe that the one thing successful people have most in common is that they find success on the far side of failure.

What do I mean by finding success on the far side of failure?  Well I find that almost all successful people have experienced significant failures in life or in their work, but they have learned from their failures.

On the other hand, it seems that people who don’t recognize their failures or don’t seek learning from them, are often the ones failing again and again. Why? Because they haven’t learned the lessons from the failure—they haven’t gained self-awareness or understanding; they haven’t understood others or their marketplace; they haven’t developed the maturity for humility and integrity—and they find themselves repeating their mistakes again and again. 

Think about the failures or mistakes you have made. How did you respond to them? What outcomes did you get? How have they helped you today?  What can you learn from your failures? 

I would love to hear from you.

Remember if you want to make significant progress in your life, don’t forget to find success on the far side of failure!

Tags: Integrity, learn from failures, mistakes, Success

Building Trust

Friday, November 20th, 2009 | Executive Mama | No Comments

I was in a meeting earlier this week with 20 people from around the world and the strangest feeling came over me.  I trusted everyone in the room—their intent, their integrity, and their ability to deliver. 

Maybe this happens to you all the time.  Maybe if I were quicker to extend trust it would happen more often to me.  But as it currently stands, sometimes I feel like I don’t know enough about a person—their character and competence—to trust.  Sometimes a person has behaved in ways that have broken trust.  Regardless, it is rare for me to trust an entire room full of people.  And it felt great!  You’ll laugh, but I felt tears spring to my eyes when I thought about it.  It didn’t mean I agreed with them on everything or that the meeting was easy, but things were easier to achieve because I assumed good intent.

I had worked with everyone in that room for at least three years and with some for over a decade.  I trusted them because they had kept commitments, they had talked to me straight, and they all delivered results.  Does this happen to you often?  Or never?  What else builds trust for Executive Mamas? 

Author: Jennifer Colosimo, Chief Learning Officer at FranklinCovey

Tags: Building Trust, Commitments, Competence, Decade, Delivered Results, Entire Room, Integrity, Jennifer Colosimo, Strangest Feeling, Trust, Vice President