Even for the best companies and most-accomplished
professionals, long track records of success are punctuated by slips, slides,
and mini-turnarounds. Even the team that wins the game might make mistakes,
fumble, and lag behind for part of it. That’s why the ability to recover
quickly and get back on course is so important.
Troubles are ubiquitous. Surprises can fall from the sky
like volcanic ash and appear to change everything. New ventures can begin with
great promise and still face unexpected obstacles, unanticipated delays, and
critics that pop up at the wrong moment. That’s why I coined Kanter’s Law:
“Anything can look like a failure in the middle.”
Nothing succeeds for long without considerable effort and
constant vigilance. Winning streaks end for predictable reasons: Strategies run
their course. New competition emerges to take on the industry leader. Ideas get
dusty. Technology marches on. Complacency sets in, making people feel entitled
to success rather than motivated to work for it.
Thus, a key factor in high achievement is bouncing back from
the low points. Long-term winners often face the same problems as long-term
losers, but they respond differently, as I found in the research for my book
Confidence. I compared companies and sports teams with long winning streaks and
long losing streaks, and then looked at how leaders led turnarounds from low to
high performance.
Consider first the pathologies of losing. Losing produces
temptations to behave in ways that make it hard to recover fast enough—and
could even make the situation worse. For example, panicking and throwing out
the game plan. Scrambling for self-protection and abandoning the rest of the
group. Hiding the facts and hoping that things will get better by themselves
before anyone notices. Denying that there is anything to learn or change. Using
decline as an excuse to let facilities or investments deteriorate.
The culture and support system that surrounds high
performers helps them avoid these temptations. They can put troubles in perspective
because they are ready for them. They rehearse through diligent practice and
preparation; they remain disciplined and professional. Their leaders put facts
on the table and review what went right or wrong in the last round, in order to
shore up strengths and pinpoint weaknesses and to encourage personal
responsibility for actions. They stress collaboration and teamwork—common
goals; commitment to a joint vision; respect and support for team members, so
when someone drops the ball, someone else is there to pick it up—and
responsibility for mentoring, so the best performers lift everyone’s
capabilities. They seek creative ideas for improvement and innovation, favouring
widespread dialogue and brainstorming.
Resilience is not simply an individual characteristic or a
psychological phenomenon. It is helped or hindered by the surrounding system.
Teams that are immersed in a culture of accountability, collaboration, and
initiative are more likely to believe that they can weather any storm.
Self-confidence, combined with confidence in one another and in the organisation,
motivates winners to make the extra push that can provide the margin of
victory.
The lesson for
leaders is clear: Build the cornerstones of confidence—accountability,
collaboration, and initiative—when times are good and achievement comes easily.
Maintain a culture of confidence as insurance against the inevitable downturns.
And while no one should deliberately seek failure, remember that performance
under pressure—the ability to stay calm, learn, adapt, and keep on
going—separates winners from losers.'
This post was written by Rosabeth Moss Kanter, who holds Harvard Business School’s
Arbuckle Professorship and specialises in strategy, innovation, and leadership.
Her latest book is SuperCorp.
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