Letting them Fail

I'm a father of two beautiful, not so young anymore, daughters. Katelyn, my oldest, is getting married this November and Kristen, my youngest, is going off to college next month. Scary to think I'm about to be an empty nester! As a dad, I learned that sometimes you have to let them fail in order for them to learn. That can apply to managing talent as well.

Let me explain.

As a parent, I would continually do things for my young girls so they wouldn't fail, only to see them continually fail at the same things. My oldest learning to ride a bike, for example, while her dad continually stood beside her for hours, not wanting her to fall and scrape her knee. Once I finally left her side and let her fall a few times, she picked it up. I begin letting them fail, not in a way that would hurt them physically, but in a way that they would learn a sometimes-painful lesson. I remember not wanting my youngest daughter to sign up for junior high volleyball because she decided the day before tryouts to do it. She had never played volleyball before in her life and I didn't want to see her fail. I reluctantly let her try out and prepared to nurse a wounded ego when she got home. Instead, she made the team and was ecstatic. She went on to play all the way through her senior year and was a state champion her junior year. Had I told her no, just to protect her at that moment, I may have kept her from years of happiness, great friends, and an amazing work ethic she learned from her coaches.

I have done that on the management side as well. Many years ago, I worked under a GM that insisted the talent "shut up and play the hits". While we did our best to work around this flawed ideal, it certainly stifled creativity. After this season, while it took some time, letting the talent try things they wouldn't normally try even if they failed at it the first few times, has made them even better. I have seasoned veterans on my team that are better now than they ever have been in decades of being on the radio. It's the things they've tried that scared them, that were out of the box, that probably scared me to, that has helped them learn and hone their skills even more.

If you continually keep talent from being who they are with unmovable parameters, harsh guidelines and a "running clock" on how much they can talk, they will never be able to be the best talent they can be. Conforming to the guidelines isn't a bad thing, however it can limit creativity and can also create a mindset of "I only have to do this much".

Instead, let your talent spread their wings, let them be creative, out of the box, and do things that maybe don't fit the norm. Remove the guard rails, just make sure they know where the road ends and the cliff begins. Go over what they did that was great and when they do fail, it's ok. Talk to them about where they can improve. Release the restraints, let their creativity soar and watch what happens.