The human body is truly an amazing organism. It is designed to fight off viruses and sickness, heal itself from bruises and injuries, and is constantly regenerating and replacing cells. The amazing thing is that all this is done subconsciously or seemingly automatically. Although we can intentionally do things that help our body’s healing process, we don’t have to consciously initiate our body’s healing. If only organizations worked in the same way!

The truth is that organizations will not automatically heal themselves. When there is internal conflict between leadership and staff, it rarely automatically resolves itself and disappears. When trust degrades and a toxic attitude is introduced into the work environment, it will not automatically be fought off and removed. When communication between departments is inhibited or cut off, it will not simply fix itself. When team morale is bruised and wounded, the passion, drive, and confidence needed to succeed will not automatically return. All of this takes intentional effort, attention, and focus. Returning an organization to health is not an easy task.

I remember reading about the life of a man named Father Damien who spent a good portion of his life years ago serving leper communities. One day, he accidentally touched his foot to some scolding hot water. As he looked down, not feeling any pain, he saw his feet blister and he quickly realized that he had also contracted the disease (one of the effects of leprosy can be numbness or lack of feeling in the limbs). If Father Damien had felt the pain, he would have quickly pulled his foot away, potentially saving his skin from the scorching heat. Our bodies were designed to feel pain to warn us of danger and make us aware of sickness, disease, or wounds. If we ignore the pain we feel in our body, it can lead to serious consequences.

If we ignore the pain points in our organization, it can also lead to serious consequences. Unfortunately the pain response mechanisms within an organization are not as sophisticated as those within the human body. Many leaders have a clear matrix set up to measure productivity and have good grasp on the financial health of their organization, however, these measurements don’t tell the whole story. A healthy organization must be productive, but it also must be a place with a healthy culture, work environment, and healthy internal relationships. It must be a place where there is mutual trust, mutual respect, and mutual service. These attributes are much more difficult to measure, and as a result are easy to ignore. They are, however just as important for the long term success of an organization.

Our main consulting focus is both sides of this organizational health equation; productivity and a healthy culture, a healthy work environment, and healthy relationships. We find that many leaders turn a blind eye to the second part of the equation. In some cases this is because they find these things subjective and difficult to measure, in other cases because they are unsure how to deal with it, and in still other cases because they are far enough removed from most of their employees that they aren’t aware of the dysfunction and pain. The results can be devastating and will always affect productivity in the long run.

Although measuring the health of an organizational culture, work environment, and relationships is not easy, it can be done. We use a series of tools based on a values framework that enables us to help leaders gauge the health of their work culture and environment. Although results may not be quite as cut and dry as financial numbers, the tools will effectively pinpoint pain points and their sources, enabling leadership to intentionally implement solutions that can lead an organization to health. As I mentioned earlier, it would be nice if the healing happened “automatically” as with our human bodies. But that would make life too easy!

How do you define and measure the health of your organization?

Calling is something that all great leaders in history have clearly embraced. It was their calling that drove them to achieve great things for their organization, their nation, and for the world. Great leaders such as Nelson Mandela, Martin Luther King Jr., and Mahatma Gandhi all embraced a call to fight for freedom and change in their context. Their call affected every aspect of their leadership. It defined why and for whom they led, it determined how they led, and ultimately it empowered them to achieve the results that they achieved. Similarly all great leaders have an inner drive or call that motivates them, directs them, and keeps calling them to reach further and higher.

In my coaching sessions with leaders I have found that one of the best questions to begin the discussion of calling is, “why do you lead?” This question digs into a person’s leadership motivations, which will reveal whether they have embraced a leadership calling or not. Unfortunately, many leaders have not truly considered why they lead. Many people enter into leadership because it is the next step on their career path and comes with an increase in salary and higher position in their organization. Those that do have clear aspirations for leadership are often motivated by things that are very shallow and one dimensional such as wealth and recognition or fame. A true leadership calling will go much deeper, clearly answer the “why” question with a purpose greater than personal advancement. It is from this answer that their passion and drive to lead over the long term will come.

A good follow-up question to the “why” question, which addresses calling from a slightly different angle, is “for whom do you lead?” Determining whether a person leads solely for their own benefit, or whether they are leading for the good of their team, their organization, their people, or their nation will shed significant light on the depth and purity of their calling.

Leaders that make the most long term impact and leave the greatest legacies are those that also have a clear calling to lead for the good of others and the world around them. This calling is the source of their passion and is what drives them to lead and keep pushing forward in spite of all obstacles. The more clarity a leader has on this calling, the more it will guide, direct, and drive them.

Why do you lead? For whom do you lead?

Many years ago Nike released an advertisement highlighting the “failures” of Michael Jordon, arguably the greatest basketball player of all-time. In the advertisement Jordon says, “I have missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I have lost almost 300 games. 26 times I have been entrusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I have failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.”

Because of these failures, Jordon succeeded in achieving an amazing five league MVP awards, fourteen NBA All-Star Game appearances, ten scoring titles, six NBA finals MVP awards, and most importantly leading the Chicago Bulls to six NBA championships.

In Michael Jordan’s career, failure pushed him to succeed. In other areas of leadership, the same can be true. Failure, if handled correctly, challenges us to improve, to develop, and to change so that we can reach further and higher. Failure also humbles us, enabling us to see more clearly and making us more willing to ask for help or input from others. The key, however, is whether we handle failure in a way that will lead to success. As we know, not everyone who plays basketball succeeds like Michael Jordon did. Not everyone who fails while in leadership will turn that failure into future successes. So what is the key?

Below are four key principles that I have found can help turn failures into future successes.

1. Keep your head up

Those that fall prey to failure are those that keep their eyes on the ground, focused on how far they have fallen. It is essential that we keep our head up and look beyond the failure, beyond the mistakes, to see the big picture and keep our eyes on the goal we want to achieve. The more that we can keep our head up and our eyes looking forward, they more we will see failure as an opportunity for growth and improvement.

2. Don’t point fingers

Pointing fingers and assigning blame is rarely helpful. Focusing on assigning blame will only create a culture of blame shifting and masking the truth. People within the team and organization will turn their focus towards self preservation rather than success of the team. Mistakes and failures do need to be analyzed to find the root cause and ensure they don’t happen again, however the purpose should never be to assign blame. This doesn’t mean that there won’t ever be consequences and accountability for actions, however learning and improvement needs to be the primary purpose behind any failure analysis.

3. Institute learning mechanisms and learning processes

More than just positive thinking and motivational speeches are needed to turn failure into success. Organizations and teams that succeed are those that have developed intentional learning mechanisms and learning process that effectively analyze failures and mistakes to produce improvement. Learning mechanisms and processes can be both informal and formal and include things like customer or staff surveys, project evaluations or even more formal audits. As leaders, however, we must ensure that the failure analysis purpose is to find both the root cause behind the problem and areas for improvement.

4. Follow-through with necessary adjustments and changes

Making necessary adjustments and changes sounds like an obvious and simple thing to do, but unfortunately too many leaders drop the ball before the needed changes are instituted. Simple adjustments often get neglected because the leader has already turned their focus to the next project and deadline before the failure is even finished being analyzed. More complicated adjustments usually involve multiple departments and stakeholders and can get stalled in the organizational bureaucracy. Instituting change is never easy; it takes perseverance, a strong will, and courage. If we don’t make the needed adjustments and changes our number one priority, failure will become a vicious cycle.

All successful people, whether sports stars or leaders of fortune 500 companies have learned to turn their failures into successes. Failures are painful, but they are necessary for success. The choice is yours, how will you approach your next failure?