How to Reckon with Leadership Failure
People do not follow you because you're perfect. They follow you because you're committed. When you fail, unless you've taught people to expect perfection, people are not expecting perfection. What people do really trust and value is when you can call a failure a failure. And people may even respect you more because you are able to clearly and thoughtfully communicate, hey, these are the things that I did that contributed to where we now are.
Alex Judd:That's the leader that I'm willing to follow because that's the one that I really trust isn't going to do this again. Okay. So as a business and certainly as a coaching team, so much of what we focus on is helping leaders build a healthy, growing, profitable business that isn't dependent on the owner to make a positive impact. And we know that anytime you're going on a bold, audacious, never done before here to their journey, one of the things that you're going to have to unfortunately get good at is how do you reckon with your own failure? And this was a topic that we kind of connected on on in on the drive here, and we kinda all realized, man, I've got a lot of, examples from business owners that I've worked with, but also in our own backgrounds running and owning businesses of, this is an incredibly, like, difficult challenging skill that so often isn't talked about or even thought about.
Alex Judd:And you particularly, Matt, brought up an example that was very real time that I think helped us contextualize everything that we're going to talk about today. So I'd love for you to share that.
Matt Aiken:Yeah. Really proud of, my customer, Jim. Jim runs a dirt road company, that that has multiple divisions. One of those divisions, their their main base of operations is about an hour away from the main office. And for the the majority of last year, he was thinking, this is my star division.
Matt Aiken:I think the p and l is justifying that they're doing way better work than than the rest of the org. I I think the way they're getting things done, I don't even need to be up there. And coming out of our Austin leaders experience last October, there was a principle shared that leaders should see with their own eyes talking about Winston Churchill going to see Paris. And I believe you shared that principle. I I did.
Matt Aiken:I I was I was trying to not not to toot my own horn here, but out of out of the
Kyle Guemmer:Probate himself.
Matt Aiken:The experience, Jim decided, hey. I'm gonna go spend some time up at this other division. I wanna I wanna see what's going on. I wanna get my boots on the ground. And in the process of doing that, realized there was a couple of things not happening to standard.
Matt Aiken:Hey. No problem. Okay. They're not happening to standard. Let's reclarify the standard.
Matt Aiken:Let me start holding the division leader accountable to this. And, you know, with the belief that this division leader is gonna, with this accountability, start making improvements towards, you know, the the standard. And meanwhile, he's also talking about this leader taking a more active role on the leadership team level, really stepping into and growing his influence in the company, maybe even, you know, looking at other compensation arrangements. And in the process of this, he started to realize that this leader didn't wanna be held accountable to the standard. This leader wanted to do it his way.
Matt Aiken:And slowly over the next co of course, the next couple months of Jim's presence and and this leader realizing, oh, he's not going away. Like, I've gotta be held accountable to the standard. He decided it would be better to leave, take most of the division's employees to a competitor. And Jim was left with, oh, no. What have I done?
Matt Aiken:How am I gonna get out of this mess?
Alex Judd:And that, you know, I think we kind of said that is one of the very unique dynamics of business ownership is that time that you are forced to confront or reckon with your failure also collides with the time that you are now the busiest. It's like, man, I am suddenly dealing with all of this, like, look in the mirror stuff that's really emotional and really difficult and you're wrestling through. How did I contribute to this? What could I have done differently? And do I suck at what I do as a leader and all that?
Alex Judd:And on top of all of that reality, you're like spending way more time in the business or or in the operator seat than you have in the past. And that's why I think these actions are so, so, so, helpful to reflect on because it's so easy to crowd them out with just busy work. And and what I think happens is when we crowd it out with busy work, it's not like, oh, we just recover from all of those emotional dynamics of leadership failure. It just compounds and creates calluses and plaques on our heart and maybe even greater issues in the business as well. And so I think it's so important to kind of return to the basics and what are the things you have to do whenever you collide with your own personal failure and leadership.
Alex Judd:Anything else you would add on that before we start to jump into these actions?
Kyle Guemmer:The thing that sticks out to me is, especially when we were having this conversation about why this is important, is there is a reality that all of us sitting here and everybody listening to this will fail. And that is part of leadership. That that's part of decision making and how effectively and quickly and healthily you can navigate through recovering from that is gonna be a a massive indicator of things down the line and the success and the impact and the fruit of what you're doing today. And so, yeah, there's a reality we're gonna fail, and and hopefully, these things really help us navigate how to do that in a healthy and effective way.
Alex Judd:Yeah. So setting expectations like this is you know, if you haven't had to deal with this yet, but you're actually leading, you will. Don't worry. Okay. So with that, let let let's jump into actions.
Alex Judd:And these actions are really oriented around, man, when you realize we have kind of ended up in a bad spot, and part of what has put us here is things that I should have done that I didn't do, things that I did do that I shouldn't have done, areas where I just had no clue, was negligent, or, man, I've I've attended a leadership conference or I've received some coaching and it's broadened my eyes to like, oh, there's a whole way of leading people that isn't this. Like, what do you do when you realize, man, the thing that I did was not right. It was a failure and that has contributed if not wholeheartedly created where we're at today. The the first action that we said, and there's gonna be five of them that we walk through, is we said, man, it's critically important that regardless of the context surrounding your leadership failure, number one, that you receive grace. Why do we start here?
Matt Aiken:Yeah. With with Jim in particular, this theme of receive grace was our first two coaching calls after this happened. Where he was sitting in the seat and he was saying to me, Matt, if I had hired myself as CEO, I would fire myself for what happened. But I can't fire myself. I'm the owner of the company.
Matt Aiken:My team is depending on me. I let this happen. What am I gonna do? And and I I just looked at him and I said, hey, like, you have to forgive yourself. You have to say this happened and I've gotta now move forward.
Matt Aiken:But me just telling him that doesn't really matter. Mhmm. I I I can tell him all day, that's your responsibility. People are depending on you. You you've gotta forgive yourself.
Matt Aiken:You've gotta take the next step. But he's gotta receive that. Mhmm. He has to internalize it. Jim had to wrestle through this idea that, okay, that did happen.
Matt Aiken:It it does suck. I'm responsible. And now what do I have to do? I have to respond. But instead of responding by taking action and going to solve all these things, he's first gotta say, like, do I believe that I want to be the CEO that helps us change?
Matt Aiken:Do I do I want to step into the gap between where we are and where we need to be? And if he doesn't do that, then everything after that is just gonna be this this this weight, this backpack full of guilt and shame that he's carrying around before he can start healthily walking out of you know, not not just repenting of. It's it's not a sin issue. It's a mistake. But but start to say, hey, this is this is my responsibility that I wanna take on, is to forgive myself, is to receive this gift that I'm still in business, I still have cash in the bank, and I could still lead the rest of my leaders towards that fruitful, healthy, profitable business that's not dependent on me.
Matt Aiken:Mhmm.
Alex Judd:It's interesting. I think part of receiving grace is is understanding and, like, you know, we all understand this hopefully, but we don't necessarily internalize this. It's like, that thing is not who I am. It's just something I did. And I think I mean, it can start to feel like a a whole crowd of thoughts kind of lining up against you saying, because of all of these things that you either did do or didn't do, you are a terrible leader.
Alex Judd:Right? And you can start to listen to that voice and and think about that language. I am. It's not I did. It's I am.
Alex Judd:Because I did all these things, that means I am. It's like, no. Your actions, praise God, we believe this. Your actions actually don't generate your identity. Your identity comes from something that is separate from your actions, and it's out of that identity that we know where that is that we we have the grace to take better actions moving forward.
Alex Judd:Praise god. But I don't think unless you have a good theology of grace that you can actually start to operate from a healthy sense of identity. And in some ways, you're actually dooming yourself to repeat the same mistake. Kyle, is there anything else you would add on the point of grace and how that plays out practically?
Kyle Guemmer:No. You nailed it. It's a it's a when we are doing things that we care about deeply, when we're doing them for people that we care about deeply, it's very easy to mix our identity with our business and our leadership with our business. And the more those things are mixed, the least amount of grace we're gonna have for ourselves. And so being able to be rooted in an identity that isn't our production or isn't our business or isn't our p and l is gonna be the ability for you to be able to receive grace forgive yourself to be able to move through these actions.
Alex Judd:I think one other practical dynamic that that or, like, kind of example of where I've seen the necessity for grace play out, both receiving grace, obviously, from God, but also from other people, is there are so many times where on office hours, which is our, you know, three times a week community call that we do with business owners and leaders, someone comes to a situation and says, man, I am really struggling with this employee. And it it the conversation really, after a bunch of great questions and and context gathering and all of that, the community kinda lands on the India that it's like, I think you have crossed the bridge where you need to terminate this person. And a lot of times, an impact driven leader will justify keeping them by saying, well, here's all the things that I didn't do that that led to this person underperforming or not fitting in chronically to where we're at now. And they're like, I just feel so bad because I didn't do all those things. And and what I've found to be so helpful is is to ask that same person, hey.
Alex Judd:Do you have any rock stars on your team? Like, do you have any people that are just crushing it in terms of culture and competency? And and inevitably, they'll say, well, sure. And I'll say, so for those people, did you just do everything perfect? Like, were did you make zero mistakes with those people?
Alex Judd:And they just, like, they just happen to be a and they're like, well, no. I made mistakes. And it's like, okay. So it's possible. Like, this doesn't all rely on you as a leader, and you need to recognize that you do make mistakes, but you can own those mistakes.
Alex Judd:And you can even tell this person, man, there are ways that I contributed to where we are today, but we cannot stay here. And we either need to move forward or we need to do something else. I think that's part of receiving grace as well. Let let's because it directly connects, let's go to the second action, which is commit to evaluating experience. I I love for you to kinda highlight what you were talking about on the car ride here about really just evaluating the decision versus evaluating the result.
Matt Aiken:Yeah. I I think Jim found himself in a situation where the circumstances are tough. I mean, this is a huge hit to his p and l. Like, he's thinking about cash flow. He's thinking about, you know, finishing out contracts.
Matt Aiken:And he's going, where did I go wrong? Well, it wasn't showing up. It wasn't starting to evaluate as the standard being played out. It wasn't holding his leader accountable to what he it was expected to do. Those are not the things that he did wrong.
Matt Aiken:And so if he doesn't stand back, if Jim doesn't stand back and say, okay, what got me here? Lack of executive presence presence, lack of clear standards, lack of process for accountability. If he doesn't stand back and say, oh, my decision to start to press on those things and to make sure that I have done my responsibility as a CEO and making sure that the standard is being played out, my customers being served to the standard that I expect. If he doesn't do that, yeah, sure. Maybe this person doesn't leave.
Matt Aiken:Maybe their their p and l for now looks a little bit better. But then he's gonna have more problems, maybe even bigger problems, irreversible problems down the road. And so we had to step back and say, okay, what did you do well? What can you not afford to repeat? And and write those down.
Matt Aiken:Mhmm. Because we've got to remember what led us to the decision. We've got to evaluate our decision, not the outcome of that decision. Yeah. We know the outcome of the decision circumstantially.
Matt Aiken:We don't know the out but the outcome doesn't necessarily speak to the wisdom.
Alex Judd:Yeah. It is interesting that at least in the short term, the most challenging, difficult, and painful results sometimes come from the best decisions. Mhmm. Like, it's like, I I am finally I am finally doing the right thing, and that created all of this pain. And it's like, you better not say that because there's pain on the backside of it, that's actually the wrong decision.
Alex Judd:It's like that's like, oh, man. I I went to the gym for the first time in three years, and I was so uncomfortable. That must mean I shouldn't be going to the gym. It's like we all know that's not the way that this works. Anything you'd add contextually onto evaluating experience and why like, what's important about that, or what do leaders need to remember as it relates to evaluating experience, Kyle?
Kyle Guemmer:Yeah. I think part of the reason why we wanted to have this conversation was not just you will fail. There's not wisdom in experience. There's wisdom in evaluated and experience. And I think the more effective we are in evaluating, those failures, those mistakes, those things that don't go the way we thought, I think it does prevent future mistakes, and it does prevent us from continuing to make the same mistakes over and over again.
Kyle Guemmer:Also, why evaluation is so important is exactly what you said in the office hour reference is, like, there can be two things that are true at the same time. We could have failed as a leader, and this person should no longer work here. And when you are tied up in the emotion and the overwhelm and the ramifications of failure, it's so easy to to mix that or, again, put your identity in I'm the problem. I'm the failure, and then continue to do that instead of step back, be able to forgive yourself and say, hey. There are two things true here at the same time.
Matt Aiken:Mm-mm.
Kyle Guemmer:And and we can look at those things, and we can make the proper adjustments to both of those things. But but even though they're they're contradictory, they can at the same time still be true.
Alex Judd:Yeah. I think it's really important, and I'm very passionate about this because I've experienced the benefits of this, but also experienced the detriments of not doing this, is you cannot delegate your critical thinking. And, like, when when something bad happens in your business, if you've got a great team right? Like, we've had people leave our team in surprising, like, blindside ways sometimes. And it's like, my my, MO whenever that happens is like, I'm gonna call every single team member, and I'm gonna personally let them know.
Alex Judd:And even even, you know, essential customers that might be affected by that situation, I'm gonna call them personally and let them know. Right? And because our team and customers care about me so much, a lot of times, I I noticed they'll be very encouraging of me. They'll tell me, man, like, I'm so sorry you're you're walking through this or I that's so hard. And, like, certainly not go above and beyond to point out things that I did that contributed to it.
Alex Judd:Sometimes, even the person themself, if they're leaving the team, they will tell me, you did nothing wrong. There's nothing you could have done to change this result. And that's why I think I I'm phrasing this very intentionally. I'm not going to delegate my critical thinking to other people that may not even have the full story. And it's really good if I'm operating from a healthy posture of my identity is not in what I did for me to say, hey, Maybe maybe some of the things that I did did would not have even changed the result.
Alex Judd:Maybe we would be experiencing the exact same thing today, and that's okay. But there's no way that I was perfect with regard to this relationship or this. Like, there I for sure made some mistakes. So how about we spend just thirty minutes just sitting down saying, what were the mistakes that I did make that maybe they didn't cause it, but they did contribute to it? And that has been, I sleep better after I do that.
Alex Judd:Right? Because it's like I can write those things down. I can learn from them, and then I I'm actually have agency and empowerment to move forward and do something different versus just like there's nothing I could have done, and and that kind of imprisons you in the future. Okay. Let's go to to number three.
Alex Judd:So this failure that we're now reckoning with. The third action is we have to discern, and I think discern is the right word here, whether it's something that's chronic or or whether it's just a one off thing that's going on. Matt, explain what we mean by this action.
Matt Aiken:Yeah. So and, again, it going back to to Jim's situation, he's got two divisions. One of the divisions had a significant problem. Well, what if that problem exists in the first division? Right?
Matt Aiken:After we're going through receiving grace, after we start going like, okay, what I did there, what was wise, what led to a a good, right, effective decision? Okay. Now those things, how do I apply them to other areas of the business? How do I observe? Is this is is there some lingering symptom?
Matt Aiken:Are are there some warning signs of what I had before? Now I've evaluated, I can start to look for what might be happening in in other areas of the business. Because because it it would be it would be a a disservice if you received grace, you evaluated your experience, and then you you assumed everything else in the organization was good, and you were like, I just will avoid it in the future. Mhmm. Like, you you there might be a pattern that you need to address, And and that's uncomfortable because you're gonna say like, oh, this was really painful for me to go through.
Matt Aiken:I I might wanna hide. I want might wanna shy back away from seeing if this exists somewhere else because what happens if I step in, it does, and I get a similar result? Mhmm. Oh, that can be really scary. Not could be.
Matt Aiken:That that sounds terrifying. Mhmm. But it's also the thing we have to do in order to respond to the situation at large. That's right. Kyle, I
Alex Judd:think I think discernment is one of your gifts both as a leader and and as a coach of leaders as well. Like, what are the questions we should be asking? Or how do we go about discerning? Like, how do you even figure out is this chronic or is this just a one off thing?
Kyle Guemmer:Yeah. I think I'll probably, like, ping pong your your compliment to me back to you in the sense of, like, what I have observed from you kind of going through this process is exactly what you talked about. You spend time even if there was something that was unavoidable in a way or or was something that was going to happen regardless, you are someone who I know goes to the Lord first and, like, processes through that. You then evaluate it. And in the part of evaluating it, you always look at yourself first.
Kyle Guemmer:And so I I don't even know if there's a silver bullet question you should be asking, but I think there's a posture of forgiveness a posture of forgiveness to yourself, receiving grace, a posture of reflection, and then looking yourself in the mirror first. Mhmm. And I have seen time and time again when when these things happen and you do make those individual calls. So, like, you you are someone who is in the midst of, like, a a a failure or a hardship or whatever that circumstance may be. You talk about the self reflection, and then you start talking about, okay, what does this mean?
Kyle Guemmer:And and I think that is really when we talk about chronic and one off, I think it can actually probably be both of those things as well. It's like, it is it is maybe a one off situation, and there's maybe some some chronic aspects or some some developmental opportunities within me as a leader that can be applied differently to different circumstances that will actually avoid other situations. And so discerning whether it's chronic or one off, I think goes back to, I think Matt explained really well, I think I would more talk about it from the posture of discern, look in the mirror first and ask those questions, And then as we work on down the line now, look outward at what does that actually mean.
Alex Judd:Yeah. And I think there's a level of maybe interrogation that is required so that you're not just engaging in shallow behavior modification. And and in some ways, I think as a coaching team, this is one of the things that y'all and also Olivia on our team actually guide people in this process is it's so easy to just say, what did I do? What did I do? And I'm gonna make sure I don't do that again.
Alex Judd:And we can all look at that and be like, oh, that's a great leadership practice. What did I do? How do I make sure I don't do that again? But that's behavior modification, and that's actually not typically a sustainable strategy. And so, another question under the question is, what did I do and what was in me that caused me to do that?
Alex Judd:Right? Like, what was the belief or the lie or the I mean, and sometimes the sin. Right? The impatience. Like, what was it in me that caused that action?
Alex Judd:And and it's not just how do I not do that again, it's how do I re renew my mind and reformat my belief system so that this doesn't just show up in new flavors and varieties down the road, I think is really, really important. Anything else you wanna add on that?
Matt Aiken:Yeah. I mean, it's also the reason we said it's chronic or one off is because at the end of the day, we don't wanna change something that was a one off. Like, we have some really good rhythms.
Alex Judd:Yeah.
Matt Aiken:And just somewhere in that rhythm, we go off course. Maybe it was personality, maybe it was just a season we were in there. We just get into a bad habit or rhythm, like or or it's just that particular leader or or that particular situation. It's like, let's not throw the baby out with the bathwater. But then let's not let's not assume that it's one off.
Matt Aiken:Yeah. I think that's where we we've we've spent a lot of the conversation is like, don't assume that this is a one off. Evaluate, is this chronic? But also, don't just assume that it's chronic. Yeah.
Matt Aiken:That would be a bummer.
Alex Judd:Yeah. And you are not your worst moments too is what we've gotta remember. And and what's so neat is, like, you know, what I wanna tell Jim, what I wanna tell any leader that's that's reckoning with a failure is, like, look at where you've gotten doing that. Mhmm. Like, you are you've built a company that is doing this, and you are doing that.
Alex Judd:What could you do if you learned from that? Like, just I mean, how, like, how much better could you be in service of others? Yeah. In some ways, like, we use language, like, the leadership literature around topics like what we're talking about right now is, like, they literally say, like, do a postmortem. And I wanna be like, well, literally no one died.
Alex Judd:And maybe that's why, like, we we overdramatize these things, and we beat ourselves over that. Like like, we killed someone. And it's helpful to remember, like, don't worry. Your job is not someone's life. And maybe the job didn't work out, and maybe the reason why the job didn't work out is your fault.
Alex Judd:And but no one died. They're gonna be okay, and there are other places to work. Right? And so I think we can sometimes build a prideful thought process around our company or our place to work that is unhelpful. Were you gonna
Kyle Guemmer:say something to jump in one more time because you brought up a great point, especially in the work that we do as coaches is oftentimes, we start working with leaders who whether it's a a track record of failure or feeling like they're not a good leader or the business is in x y z shape, they come to us. And in so many ways, like, we help them establish structure. And in so many different situations, whether it's mission, whether it's values, whether it's role clarity, as we put those things into the business, we realize people shouldn't be here. Roles weren't clear. That person doesn't get it, wanna have the capacity to do it, or they're not the right role fit, and things start to shift and change.
Kyle Guemmer:And if we're just like, oh, I shouldn't have established mission because now I lost one of my best salesmen, or I can't hold values because now this person left, or man, every time I start a one on one, like, now I have to have more conversations. It's like, no. That is actually the thing that's creating the health. It's just exposing either the past failure or the unhealth. And so it's like, man, don't don't look at the don't look at the process that happened and like, oh, I don't need to do the process.
Kyle Guemmer:Look at the symptoms or the actual root of, like, what was actually happening here. So that's a a super important point as as we, like, navigate through putting system structures and health into the organization.
Alex Judd:Okay. So receive grace, commit to evaluating experience, discern if it's chronic or one off, reestablish standards around what's right. The example that comes to mind for me here is I I recently listened to an interview with Kurt Signeti, who is the coach of, the University of Indiana's, I mean, historic run to the college football national championship. Right? Like, unprecedented, crazy what they just did.
Alex Judd:Now they did it with 25 and 26 year olds, but that's beside the point. Right? But he was actually talking about one of the things that he learned working on Nick Saban's staff. And he was actually talking about many of the things he he learned working on Nick Saban's staff, which Nick Saban is, probably inarguably the greatest college football coach of all time. Right?
Alex Judd:And, he said, I was there for the stint where we won 29 games in a row. In a in a time when it was like a 13 game season, they had won 29 games in a row. And he said, I remember one week we walked to the game and and something just felt a little bit different on the bench and on the sideline. It just like there was a little bit less intensity, little less urgency. And he's like, but we won the game, and that was game 29.
Alex Judd:And then he said, something felt different that week. And then we came to game 30, and that's where we got I think they got surprised by South Carolina and they got beat and the streak ended. Right? Now a lesser leader would say, man, we've got all these standards. You know, trust the process.
Alex Judd:Nick Saban's whole thing about excellence every day. Don't compare yourself to the competition. And that gets you a string of 29 wins, and then you lose, and you just abandon that altogether. Right? And you just I mean, like, you say, well, we failed.
Alex Judd:Right? And and we didn't keep the streak going. And so therefore, we're gonna release it. It's like, we look at that. We're like, that's so ridiculous.
Alex Judd:That's the thing that got you 29 wins. You should be picking yourself up and being like, okay, the drive for 30 wins in a row now starts. Right? But how often as leaders do we do that where it's like we are so idealistic, so passionate, so so excited and zealous about this is what's right with regard to accountability and healthy culture and hiring great team members and the what we what we create, not what we tolerate. We're so passionate about that.
Alex Judd:And then something bad happens or we fail. And in the process of failure, we get a little bit jaded and we actually let go of the thing that made us successful. And I just think it's incredibly, incredibly important that we reestablish standards around what's right, like and do not abandon those things just because there was a moment of failure. What would y'all add to that or or any context you dive into there?
Matt Aiken:Well, I I'm thinking about you. I'm gonna tee you up, Kyle. Like, what we're really talking about is a belief conversation. Do you believe that the standard that that you want to set is the right standard? When we talk about because we we on this podcast, we talk a lot about set the standard, operationalize, you know, define what winning looks like.
Matt Aiken:But when we're reckoning with failure, what do we need? We need to restore our belief in the standard. Oh, and and not in a without self reflection like we've talked about. Commit to evaluated experience. Look at is this is this a chronic problem or not?
Matt Aiken:And then we get to this one where we're saying, reestablish that that belief inside. This is your belief drive behavior. This is what you always anytime I ask you a coaching question, hey, I'm dealing with this. You're like, well, what are the beliefs?
Kyle Guemmer:Yeah. And and I think that comes you know, I think that's important to talk about in this conversation because we to be effective leaders, to be impact driven leaders, yes, you're gonna have to deal with failure. But at the end of the day, our responsibility is to take action and be effective. And so, like, we've been talking about receiving grace, so important. Committing to evaluating, so important.
Kyle Guemmer:All of those things are to lead to be a more effect like, be more effective leaders. And so, yeah, in part of that evaluation process is, like, what were the beliefs that were driving that decision? Because belief does drive behavior. So what was the behavior? What were the beliefs that that did result in that behavior?
Kyle Guemmer:And then were those lies that we need to get rid of, or or was it truth that we actually need to reestablish and continue to double down on the things that were actually working? And so, yeah, sometimes it's established new and different. Sometimes it's reestablished what was right, but having a level of clarity and conviction to take action. So none of this is to, like, get in our feelings, sulk, or hide in a corner. It's all to really be effective in the process of, like, receiving grace so that then we can go out and act and decide and lead and serve.
Alex Judd:And that, I mean, yeah, it really thoughtfully brings us to the fifth point, which is communicate with authenticity, humility, and hopefulness. And we chose these three words very intentionally. What I'd like us to do is each of us take a word.
Kyle Guemmer:I'll take humility.
Alex Judd:Okay. Which one you want?
Matt Aiken:I'll take hopefulness.
Alex Judd:Okay. And then I'll take authenticity. So we're gonna communicate with authenticity, humility, and hopefulness. Authenticity. People do not follow you because you're perfect.
Alex Judd:They follow you because you're committed. Yeah, when when you fail, unless you've taught people to expect perfection, people are not expecting perfection. But what what people do really trust and value is when you can call a failure a failure, and people may even respect you more because you are able to clearly and thoughtfully communicate, hey. These are the things that I did that contributed to where we now are. Because I'll tell you from my experience, that's the leader that I'm willing to follow because that's the one that I really trust isn't going to do this again To the degree that they aren't willing to own it and say, I had nothing to do with that.
Alex Judd:I'm like, I I have I mean, they are going to do this again. It might show up in a different way, but they're going to the skin. So, I think anytime you have a bad result that was even in part created or caused by your action or inaction, start with an apology and just say, Hey, I'm sorry. Here's the specific things that I've kind of looked at, prayed about, thought about that I did that contributed to this. But, and this is really critical, authenticity, like you start there and you should even stay with authenticity, but it has to be paired with humility and hopefulness.
Alex Judd:And I think that's like, so so don't turn off the podcast now. Keep listening. Kyle, why why is humility so critical in this final action?
Kyle Guemmer:You know, when you look at leadership failure, I think for me, the the areas that stick out to me the most are not just leadership failures in business, but also in marriage and in parenting. And the most impactful or the biggest accelerators of growth, I can think of so many stories, and I'll use a story of you in a second, Alex, but so many of the examples of just massive growth and massive trust building and massive momentum in my parenting, in my marriage, in my relationships, in business happens when you do come authentically and talk about the things you need to talk about and do it in a way that is humble and do it in a way where it's I I I don't have these things figured out, and I'm committed to getting better at these things. And when we were talking about the story of you, Alex, earlier, there are there are moments that I talk to you about a lot of they're so often now in the business where I just say, I trust you. I trust you. I trust you.
Kyle Guemmer:And it is because I many, many reasons, but some of the reasons that stick out in my mind so vividly are the moments that we have spent on the phone after really, really hard moments where you have gone through this process we're talking about. You've communicated with me authentically the things that you're learning and doing that in in a humble way where I'm like, of course failure or mistakes are gonna happen, but I will follow this guy anywhere because I know he's going through the process that I experience myself in my own life, and he's committed to that. And I'll I'll follow that guy anywhere. So I don't need perfection, but, man, when I see authenticity and then humility on the backside of that in leaders, like, those are the people that I'm gonna run through a wall for.
Alex Judd:Thanks for saying that.
Matt Aiken:And then, you know, so we we've said, you know, this is the true state, the real state, and authentic presentation of of what's going on and where we're going. We've we've said, hey, like, here's an accurate view of my part in this. And and we tell them, our team that. That's great. But what are we trying to create in our team?
Matt Aiken:We're trying to create not only trust and alignment, but energy. Like, we want them to be able to say, oh, okay. That that mistake happened. There might be other mistakes that happen in the future, but I'm hopeful about what's going on. It's a leader's job to take our people's eyes and put them up at above the horizon to see where we're going.
Matt Aiken:Otherwise, what are they gonna be doing? They're be down looking at their feet. They're gonna go, man, that really sucked and oh, man, that was super embarrassing. This is a place I wanna be? Because right now, it's not.
Matt Aiken:It's not a place where they wanna be. They're they're dealing with potentially your mess. We're in a mess. So what do they need to know? They need to know it's okay that we're not okay, but I'm committed to us not staying here.
Matt Aiken:And where we're going is gonna be better. Where it's gonna be new fruitfulness, and there's gonna be peace where there right now is conflict. And so it's our job to to build them up and cast clear that vision of what a hopeful, healthy, profitable, fruitful business. And and for them, job looks like in the future.
Alex Judd:And and that's why, I mean, yeah, you you can't create hope in others if you don't have it yourself. Yeah. And and so so so critical. And that is really a a fine point on everything we already talked about today. So y'all, thanks so much.
Alex Judd:This was good. Bye. Well, there you have it. Thanks so much for joining us for this episode. If you want any of the information or resources that we mentioned, that's all in the show notes.
Alex Judd:Hey, before you go, could I ask you for one quick favor? Could you subscribe, rate, and review this podcast episode? Your feedback is what helps our team engage in a sequence of never ending improvement. We wanna amplify what's valuable to you and obviously reduce or even remove the things that aren't. Also, you leaving a positive review is what helps us connect with, build trust with, and serve other leaders around the country.
Alex Judd:So thanks in advance for helping us out on that front. Are you a leader that wants to grow your business in a healthy way, serve people exceptionally well, and glorify God in the process? Go to pathforgrowth.com to get more information about our community of impact driven leaders and schedule a call with our team. Hey, thank you so much to the Path for Growth team, Kyle Cummings and the crew at Podcircle, and the remarkable leaders that are actively engaged in the Path for Growth community. Y'all are the people that make this podcast possible.
Alex Judd:Y'all know this. We're rooting for you. We're praying for you. We wanna see you win. Remember, my strength is not for me.
Alex Judd:Your strength is not for you. Our strength is for service. Let's go. Let's go. Let's go.
