優秀的領導者如何面對失敗(上)

Ainslie –the most successfulOlympic sailor in history, with five medals –is captain of theLand Rover BAR sailing team and has a penchant for come-from-behind victories.

艾恩斯利是有史以來最成功的奧林匹克航海家，總共獲得了5枚奧運獎牌。他也是路虎本·艾恩斯利帆船隊(Land Rover BAR)的船長，他經常在比賽中後來居上，最終取得勝利。

On the final day of racing in Oman inFebruary, the winds were light. In the first two of three heats, Ainsliemisjudged the winds and steered his yacht over the start line too quickly – afault of a mere 12cm the first time and 10cm the second. The penalty meant hehad to let the other boats pass him.

在阿曼站比賽的最後一天，風力很弱。當天的預賽共分三輪，艾恩斯利在前兩輪中誤判了風速，駕駛帆船過快地越過了起點線——第一次的錯誤只有12釐米，第二次也只有10釐米。由於遭到懲罰，他只能讓其他船超過自己。

But the third heat changed everything. Withthe wind still barely blowing, Ainslie fought from third place to first, andthe victory was enough for his team to clinch the entire event.

但第三輪預賽改變了一切。儘管風力仍然很弱，艾恩斯利還是從第三名躍升到第一名，這場勝利足以讓他的團隊贏得整場賽事。

Looking back now, Ainslie said there’s a bigreason his team managed the win. As captain, Ainslie was quick to takeresponsibility for the first two faults, and that meant his team could move onto the third heat without blame hanging over them.

回顧當時的情況，艾恩斯利表示，他的團隊之所以能夠取勝，源自一個重要原因：作爲船長，艾恩斯利很快爲前兩輪的錯誤主動承擔了責任，使得整個團隊可以全力以赴參加第三輪預賽，而不必揹負心理壓力。

“I could have had a group of guys looking at me in frustration. Butwe have guys who understand it’s OK to make mistakes,”said Ainslie. “My guys know, if you push and fail, it doesn’t have to bethe end.”

“我的團隊本來有可能會失望地看着我。但他們都明白犯錯沒什麼大不了。”艾恩斯利說，“我們團隊的人都知道，如果你努力後仍然失敗了，那也未必是最終的結局。”

That’s not an easy task for most tting you’re the reason something went wrong, owning up to the fact thatyour department or company failed is tough. But sucking it up, coming forwardand learning from the experience is the hallmark of a great manager.

但對多數領導者來說，這卻並非易事。承認某個錯誤是自己導致的，並毫不猶豫地接受自己的部門或公司的失敗，的確是件很困難的事情。但停止抱怨，奮勇向前，並從失敗中吸取教訓，是一個優秀管理者的重要特徵。

Accepting mistakes

接受錯誤

It’s human nature for people to want totake credit for what went right and shift blame for what went wrong, saidOliver Donoghue, managing director and co-founder of the Nonstop RecruitmentSchweiz AG talent agency in Prague. In many companies, that creates a culturewhere nobody wants to take responsibility for fear of being punished.

布拉格人才中介公司Nonstop Recruitment Schweiz AG總經理兼聯合創始人奧利佛·多諾霍(OliverDonoghue)表示，多數人都希望將成功歸功於自己，將錯誤歸咎於別人，這是人性使然。很多公司都形成了因爲擔心遭到懲罰，而沒人敢於承擔責任的文化。

“What you need to learn is that it’s not the mistakesthat define you,”Donoghue said, “it’s what you do with them.”

“你必須明白，起決定性作用的不是錯誤，”多諾霍說，“而是你如何應對錯誤。”

Nearly every type of team has the sameproblem with taking responsibility when things go awry, said Jan Hagen,associate professor at ESMT business school in Berlin. Hagen has studied thereactions of different people – from office workers to flight crews –that arefaced with stress. In cockpits, he found that crew members often won’t reportproblems to the captain out of an innate anxiety associated with delivering badnews.

柏林ESMT商學院副教授簡·哈根(Jan Hagen)表示，幾乎每種類型的團隊在承擔失敗的責任時都會面臨相同的問題。哈根研究了不同人——從辦公室員工到空勤人員——面對壓力時的反應。在駕駛艙內，他發現空勤人員經常因爲害怕傳達壞消息而不向機長彙報問題。

In the business world, middle managersoften keep their heads down when things go wrong, fearing that reporting aproblem means they’ll take the blame, Hagen said. “It’s never easyto admit to a problem, even in a great organisation,”he said.

哈根表示，在商業領域，中層管理人員往往會在出現問題時保持低調，擔心彙報問題會令自己承擔責任。“承認問題從來都不是一件容易的事情，即便是在偉大的組織裏也不例外。”他說。

The problem with this system of denial isthat you lose out on the chance to learn from the mistake, Hagen said. Instead,after admitting to a failure, analyse what went wrong, which will help youfigure out how to avoid it next time.

哈根認爲，如果人人都不敢承擔責任，就會失去從錯誤中吸取經驗教訓的機會。相反，承認失敗之後，便可分析問題的根源，有助於找到避免再次犯錯的方法。