要想創建一家偉大的公司,你必須對員工提出更高的要求。你要允許他們突破自我,而要做到這一點,唯一的途徑便是鼓勵他們經歷失敗。 “透視領導力”是一個在線社區,我們將邀請最有思想、最具影響力的商界人士在此回答關于職業與領導力的問題。今天,我們的問題是:要保持公司成功,最佳途徑是什么?以下為ClickTale公司CEO塔爾?施瓦茨的回答。 如果要給員工提一條建議,我希望讓他們徹底明白:想要成功,先要經歷失敗。建議員工在成功之前先經歷失敗,這聽起來似乎有違常理,但我敢保證,這絕對是有道理的。想經營一家好公司,你可以告訴團隊成員努力做到最好。但如果想經營一家偉大的公司,你必須對員工提出更高的要求。你要允許他們突破自我的界限,而要做到這一點,唯一的途徑便是鼓勵他們經歷失敗。 這是因為,在追尋真正具有原創性的想法時,你必然會經歷失敗。這已被歷史無數次證明。此外,失敗也是誕生創造力的第一步。比爾?蓋茨深知這一點。阿爾伯特?愛因斯坦和艾薩克?牛頓也知道這一點。梵高、狄更斯甚至J.K.羅琳都知道,失敗是將好想法變成奇妙創意的關鍵所在。 因此,我不僅會鼓勵員工經歷失敗,而且會要求他們這樣做。ClickTale的每一名員工都知道,在頭腦風暴會議、公司會議和戰略活動上,他們可以提出腦海中閃過的任何想法。他們提出的徹底改革客戶體驗的方案,可以是瘋狂的、牽強附會的,但他們知道,如果公司同意將這些方案付諸實施,即便最終失敗,他們也不會面臨任何懲罰。這是因為我相信1:4法則,也就是說,每一位真正驅使自己進行創造性思考的員工,每經歷四次成功時,會至少經歷一次失敗。相反,如果他們每次都能成功,領導者便有必要認真研究一下他們的績效。 那么,我們如何創造一種安心的環境,讓員工可以坦然面對失???坦率地說,你可以任意創建這種環境。在ClickTale,我們更樂于采用一種傳統方式,那就是不吝褒獎。在公司會議上表揚一名員工失敗的嘗試,重點強調他們在提出想法,以及在嘗試的過程中所表現出來的勇氣、創造性思維和進取精神。你也可以采取更基礎的方式,比如提供經濟獎勵、甜食,或者結合那些符合公司獨特的企業文化的各種正面因素。獎勵方式本身并不重要。重要的是,創造出適當的環境,真正促使員工突破自我,更進一步。 在當今競爭異常激烈的市場環境下,真正的創新非常稀缺。員工急于表現自己,擔心如何保住飯碗,因此,他們需要上司的恰當鼓勵,讓他們可以安心地進行開拓性思考。如果你想取得真正的成功,就必須主動去創造這樣的“安全網”,鼓勵、獎勵失敗。因為只有讓員工可以安心地經歷失敗,你才能擺脫束縛,取得真正的成功。(財富中文網) 譯者:劉進龍/汪皓 審校:任文科 |
The Leadership Insider network is an online community where the most thoughtful and influential people in business contribute answers to timely questions about careers and leadership. Today’s answer to the question: What’s the best way to keep your company successful? is written by Tal Schwartz, CEO of ClickTale. If there is one lesson my employees know that I love to drive home, it’s this: if you want to succeed, you first need to fail. Advising employees to fail before they succeed may sound counterintuitive, but I assure you it is anything but. If you want to run a good company, go ahead and tell those on your team to strive to do their best work. But if you want to run a great company, I dare you to push your staff even further. I dare you to allow them to break through their own boundaries — and the only way to do that is to encourage them to fail. That’s because failure is what you encounter on the road to a truly original idea. It’s what history has proven, time and again, is the first step to creativity. Bill Gates knows it. Albert Einstein and Isaac Newton knew it. Van Gogh, Dickinson — even J.K. Rowling — knew that failure is essential to turn good ideas into truly fantastic ones. So I don’t just encourage my employees to fail, I require that they do. Every employee at ClickTaleknows in brainstorming sessions, company meetings, and strategy pow-wows, they can offer anyidea that pops into their head. They can bring forth crazy, far-fetched scenarios for revolutionizing customer experience, and they know that if they are given the green light to put their plans into action, there will be no penalty if they end up falling ontheir face. That’s because I have faith in the ratio of 1:4. For every four wins, an employee who is truly pushing him or herself to think creatively will fail at least once. Otherwise, if they’re hitting so-called“homeruns” every time, then it’s imperative as a leader to take a closer look at their performance. So how do you create an environment where your employees feel comfortable failing? Quite honestly, you can set the stage any way you like. At ClickTale, we prefer good, old-fashioned praise. Highlight a staffer’s failed venture at a company-wide meeting, focusing on the courage, creative thinking, and gumption that was required for them to offer the idea and attempt to see it through. Or you can go a more elementary route, and provide financial bonuses, sweet treats, or whatever sort of positive reinforcement that jives well with your company and its unique culture. The reward itself is unimportant. What matters is that you create the right environment to really get your staff pushing themselves further. In today’s ever-crowded marketplace, true innovation is scarce. Employees, eager to please and worried about holding on their jobs, need the right kind of encouragement from their higher-ups to feel safe thinking out of the box. So if you want to really succeed, create that safety net yourself. Encourage failure and reward it. Because only when you make it safe to fail will you pull away from the pack and start to truly succeed. |