Fear of failure can be stifling! Innovation, creativity, risk taking—all die in the face of fear.

Recently, I sat watching my son’s high school basketball team. They were tied at halftime. The home team crowd was hopeful. Shortly into the third quarter, hope was waning as the visiting team sunk another bucket to gain ten unanswered points. The game ended with an even larger gap. How could such a close game be blown so wide open?

After the game, the coach asked about my thoughts regarding the tentative play in the second half. Before answering, I asked what he had shared with his team during halftime. He counted off on his fingers several shortcomings he had noticed in the first half play, each time referring to a mistake made by one or many players. “Hmmm!” I shared my observation, “Coach, in the first half I noticed that you systematically pulled each player who made a ‘noticeable’ mistake, do you agree?” He did. He explained that discussing their mistakes while they were still fresh provided real-time feedback so they could better relate to his instructions. I did not refute his point. I did, however, suggest that pulling the kids when they make mistakes and then focusing on their ‘shortcomings’ during the halftime talk, in my opinion, sent a different signal, “Don’t make mistakes!”

I continued, “When you pull a player each time they commit an error, I think the boys feel singled out in front of all their friends and ‘fans’ which creates anxiety and apprehension. Also, in my experience, the only person who never makes mistakes is someone who isn’t trying hard enough; so when you send the message that they should not commit errors…they hear, ‘Play it safe.’ I think they will perform better if you encourage them to try their hardest and let them make mistakes so they don’t fail in the long run! Take time to learn from mistakes and refine play during practice—leverage your strengths during the game.” He nodded as if in agreement and thanked me for my input.

This philosophy holds true in business as well as sports. Late last week, the Harvard Business Review sent this management tip of the day:

To Encourage Innovation, Stop Punishing Failure

“One of the most common innovation mistakes companies make is urging risk-taking while punishing commercial failure. The academic literature suggests that almost every successful product had a failure somewhere in its lineage. But inside most companies, working on something that “fails” commercially carries significant stigma, if not outright career risk. It’s no surprise that people play it safe. That’s not to say that companies should encourage failure. When people do something stupid, make sloppy mistakes, or screw up something that has dramatic repercussions on the business, they should absolutely be held accountable. The trick is to recognize that in the early stages of innovation, what at first appears to be failure is anything but. Innovation success involves disciplined experimentation, and learning from failure is a big part of that.”

As leaders we each should strike a balance of courage and consideration. Demonstrate courage, then motivate courage—in the face of fear, uncertainty and yes—failure. Don’t stifle others by insisting on perfection. Measure trajectory and ensure progress by transforming mistakes into springboards. This does not mean tolerating repeated mistakes, or mistakes that may ‘sink your ship’—it means that great leaders don’t punish teams for committing ‘inevitable’ mistakes. When asking your team to swing for the fences expect some failures. Too much focus on the negative (especially public focus) and they will stop swinging for the fences. Maintain composure and focus—modelling the behaviors you desire from others. Help your team to quickly learn from, rather than fear, their mistakes—accelerating rather than stifling performance!

“I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.” – Thomas A. Edison

Read more from VerAegis: The legacy series to learn more about balancing courage with consideration.