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Do You Feel Like You Are Failing At Your Job?
Three strategies when you feel like you are failing at work.
First and foremost, here’s what you need to know: When you feel like you are failing at work, it doesn’t mean YOU are a failure. And this is important to remember. In their book Humility is the New Smart, Edward Hess and Katherine Ludwig point out that as humans, “we tend to ‘defend, deny and deflect’ when confronted with failure.
Our evolutionary fight-flee-or freeze response is triggered by fear of failure and embarrassment that interferes with our ability to engage in creativity, critical and innovative thinking, and emotional engagement with others.”
In other words, if you tell yourself that you are a failure, you’re unlikely to be able to engage the emotional distance necessary to reflect on what happened and learn from the situation. You are more likely to go into a tailspin of remorse, anger and blame.
Most of us have had no formal training in how to think, listen, learn or experiment through inquiry. No one really taught us how to emotionally engage, to manage emotions, to collaborate, or embrace mistakes as learning opportunities…
