What Failure Means | Iterate | Align
Hello there! Welcome to my weekly LEAPS.
You’re receiving this email because you subscribed to my weekly Wednesday feature or our mailing list. Every Wednesday, I share 5 things using our LEAPS approach:
Learn: something new or an idea
Energy: an energy (good or bad) word and it’s meaning
Action: something to do
Processing: a question to consider
Shout out: something or someone that I want to celebrate or acknowledge
LEARN
Something Worth Sharing
What Failure Means
A common leadership habit is asking, “What does success look like?” It’s a useful question, but it can also keep thinking at a high level.
A different question often brings more clarity: What would failure look like?
This question is often the missing half of the equation, balancing our vision of success with a clearer understanding of what could take us off course.
Failure is usually easier to recognise. When we define it, we reveal risks, blind spots, behaviours, and assumptions that might otherwise stay hidden. It helps us notice problems earlier, make better adjustments, and avoid drifting.
It also highlights something important in teams: failure can mean different things to different people. What feels like failure to one person - lost trust, missed targets, reputational risk, wasted effort - may not look the same to someone else.
Exploring those perspectives helps teams understand what is really at stake, both individually and collectively. From there, a clearer shared understanding of success and failure can emerge.
Understanding failure doesn’t mean expecting it. It simply gives us clearer signals so we can adapt and improve as we go.
ENERGY
An emotion or energy; a stand-out word / s
Iterate
From the Latin iteratus, the past participle of iterare, meaning “to do again, repeat.”
Iteration is not about starting over. It is about learning from what has happened and adjusting the next step. Progress rarely comes from getting everything right the first time. It comes from noticing what is not working, refining the approach, and trying again with greater insight.
ACTION
Something small that you can do that might make a big difference
Defining Failure
Define your own version of failure.
Write down what failure truly means to you in your work or role.
What would make you feel that something had genuinely failed?
Be specific. Think about what matters most, outcomes, trust, effort, integrity, relationships, or something else.
Notice what your definition reveals about what is truly at stake for you.
PROCESSING
A question to think about and consider (you can discuss this with someone or write your thoughts down)
“What would it look like if someone truly believed in you?”
Consider this not just in words of encouragement, but in their behaviour. Believing in someone can help us to thrive, be courageous, step outside our own limitations and so on. Believing in someone can be voiced, it can be felt, but actions speak loudest of all.
This question will be added to the Community Space in the Leapers Club for you to share your thoughts.
SHOUT OUT
Who / what I think deserves recognition - my gratitude or to be celebrated.
Timing
A quiet shout out to timing.
Sometimes things don’t work when we expect them to. A plan shifts, a door closes, or something simply doesn’t land the way we hoped. In those moments it can feel like failure.
Yet with a little distance, timing often reveals its own logic. The right conversation appears later, the right opportunity arrives differently, or a path becomes clearer because something earlier didn’t work.
Call it timing, coincidence, or the universe quietly working its magic. Sometimes what looks like failure is simply something not meant for now. ✨
LEAPERS Club Shout Out:
The start of early conversations and connections that have already begun!
Quick Overview of the Leapers Club
Once inside the Club, you will find:
A clear starting point for learning the GLAS Method and understanding the wider framework
A private community space
Dedicated chat areas for focused conversations
Curated non-fiction book recommendations
Themed 90 day self-led Sets with online and downloadable Playbooks
L.E.A.P.S spaces to share your Learn, Energy word, Action, Processing, and Shout Out
Specialist sector Sets for teachers, family businesses, leadership development, and professional advisers (with many more to follow)
Check in quizzes to deepen reflection
Live and recorded events
Practical visuals and tools you can use immediately
Once a member, you have life-time community access
BONUS GIFT FOR YOU
This week’s little extra for you - from me
This week’s gift for you is one of our GLAS Original visuals - a tool called ALIGN. Visit the link to download and also see how this can be applied.
The offer (below) is available to you for free (for 7 days) using the code: ALIGN when you check out. Access is via the link / button below.
Please note that if you miss the 7 day offer, we can not extend this for you. You can, however always access the download for a nominal charge.
Invisible Influence visual synopsis
The artwork featured in this section is all copyrighted and for private use only. If you wish to use these online, in blogs / features or in presentations etc - we are happy to discuss licences. Please get in touch. The downloads do not have watermarks.
If you’d like to discuss having your ideas, business or culture captured visually - you can also let me know via email.
LEAPS is a process used by our team and clients all the time - and even my own family on a daily basis.
I’ll be sharing a set of LEAPS each week with you and encourage you to do your own version:
L: what have you learned?
E: what’s your energy / feeling word
A: what’s one thing you need to do?
P: what are you thinking / processing?
S: who or what can you shout out?
