How do you handle failure?
By Jennifer R. Farmer
What should you do when you make a mistake and your mistake is public.
One of the biggest public relations faux pas that people make is being unable to forgive themselves and to keep going. For people who strive to do the right thing, failure is can be a tremendous set back. But maintaining a strong brand, is about finding a way to keep going and to be consistent.
Now, it is certainly important to acknowledge your mistake, to apologize and to make amends. In some instances, it is also important to step away, discover how you got off track, and heal so that you can move forward. The goal has to be rectifying the current issue so you can resume your life’s work and calling.
However, in some instances, we can become so immobilized by our failure that we shutdown…completely. I’m not certain we should do that.
Be the person who refuses to quit. Take time away from the spotlight to heal, grow, repair harms, etc. But then get back in the game and keep going. Understand that all of us fail, some of us just have our mistakes publicized.
Additionally, when I think about the people who have accomplished great things in the world, they have all experienced a degree of failure. And the bigger their reach or platform, they greater the potential they have to make a mistake. Please remember that no one accomplishes great things without an internal commitment to keep trying, indeed to keep going. No one achieves success without a few bumps and bruises.
The question becomes what has this situation come to reveal or teach. Once you know the answer, work on absorbing the lesson. Then vow to get back in the game and to keep going.
You simply cannot stop a person who refuses to give up. Be that person.