Navigating Failure Together: Building Resilient Leadership

Music from the 50s and 60s dominated the car radio on family road trips growing up. The atmosphere in the car resonated with Jazz, Big Band, Folk, Rhythm and Blues, and Rock and Roll. My experience of classical orchestral or symphonic music was sparse. The Nutcracker one Christmas with Grandma, the Cleveland Pops Orchestra in the park while visiting other relatives during the summer, and the soundtrack to many Bugs Bunny cartoons. As an adult, I still love Jazz but regularly listen to classical music. My children traveled a different journey, playing multiple instruments across various genres.

A comment from the teacher/conductor of my son's recent orchestra concert sparked my attention and thinking. The conductor announced that he was a teacher first and a conductor second and that although the next piece wasn't ready, he and his students chose to include it in the concert. And with a raise of his baton, music filled the room. The complexity of the contemporary piece was evident, and while it wasn't polished, the Varsity Orchestra ended the piece to erupting applause.

My thoughts orbited the similarities of church leadership and the young teacher/conductor's risk in presenting an unpolished piece in their final concert. The caliber of his orchestra’s performance would characterize his teaching and leadership. Yet, displaying resilience, he facilitated the risk of performing a new piece. Resilient leaders are rooted in hope, resist detrimental forces, and promote the flourishing of others. Likewise, resilient church leaders are willing to jeopardize their success and reputation to empower team members with the authority to take risks and experience failure to increase collective success.

In the church, how you lead is often more important than what your leadership produces. While the number of leadership books continues to grow, the seminal theories of servant and transformational leadership are foundational to the "how" of leadership. Robert Greenleaf pioneered servant leadership, encouraging positional leaders to serve their employees to improve job satisfaction and productivity. James MacGregor Burns pioneered transformational leadership, encouraging positional leaders to empower employees as stakeholders who are inspired to develop personally and benefit the group. Either approach or a combination of servant and transformational leadership is useful for resilient church leadership. 

My thoughts kept returning to my experience at the orchestra; leading church staff and volunteer teams is like being a teacher/conductor. The competency of music teachers is on the line at each concert. The competency of church leaders is on the line at each worship service, student meeting, wedding, funeral, care request, small group, service project, and more. The teacher/conductor instructs students, but their efforts rise and wane with student’s practice habits. As leaders in the church, we do our best to train or facilitate training for our staff and volunteers, but application and implementation are up to them.

The orchestra teacher can competently play most, if not all, of the instruments in an orchestra. True, some students may play a particular instrument better than their teacher, but not all. Suppose the teacher, now conductor, concluded that a piece would sound better in concert if they played the cello. Who leads when the conductor steps aside from the podium, replacing a cello student to ensure a perfect performance? We might experience great music or a fantastic cello solo; however, the orchestra suffers in the absence of the conductor. Yet, how often does the same scenario occur in our churches or other organizations? The senior leader or a department lead steps away from their role as leader to solo, ensuring the success of a program, meeting, worship service, ministry event, or even lawn maintenance. When leaders solo, everything looks good from the outside, yet soloing leaders diminish the collective group, church, or organization. When leaders go solo, they disempower their team members, and the whole church suffers.

What sparks a leader's soloing? Is it forgetting that everyone’s leadership journey begins untrained and unrefined? Maybe soloing results from unclear vision casting—"If they could only see what I see?" Opportunity, excitement, and enthusiasm may drive some leaders to go solo. Yet, resilient leaders rarely go solo. Pride, insecurity, or even the fear of failure exposes weak resilience. Unresilient leaders solo because they are unwilling to risk letting others make them look bad.

In allowing a piece that was not ready, the orchestra conductor risked letting others make him look bad and revealed a significant leadership principle. Resilient leadership avoids soloing by empowering others to lead and with the authority to succeed or fail. In 2 Timothy 2, Paul writes, “What you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses, commit to faithful men who will be able to teach others also (2 Timothy 2:2, CSB). Resilient leaders train, entrust, and empower others to lead. Resilient leaders are committed to developing others because, in the end, we all know that someone will miss a cue, a singer will stumble, a sermon will flop, words will be misspoken and misspelled, a shut-in overlooked, and opportunities missed. Failure will happen.

The failure of others can make a leader look bad. But resilient leaders risk allowing others to make them look bad. Leadership is risky, yet the literature encourages resilient leaders to help others learn from their mistakes. Today's failures provide tomorrow's learning or innovation. Resilient leaders embrace failure's opportunity. Resilient leaders allow failure, expect failure, and prepare for failure by setting up systems to coach, develop, and release others to try again--succeed or fail.

People, groups, organizations, and churches can learn from failure. Resilient leadership within the church empowers others who, in turn, empower others, so everyone wins—regardless of how it may reflect the leader. As those we lead experience setbacks, they grow and learn; much like the piece of music that wasn’t fully polished yet performed by the varsity orchestra, every achievement becomes a shared victory.

References

Ardjomand-Kermani, N. (2024, May 31). Fostering a culture of collective success. https://www.hypatiacollaborative.co/collaborative-not-competitive-fostering-a-culture-of-collective-success/

Bartolo, C. (2024, July 13). Redefining leadership: The power of collective success. Medium. https://chrisbartolo.medium.com/redefining-leadership-the-power-of-collective-success-b35e5516c160

Burns, J. M. (1978). Leadership (First Edition). HarperCollins.

Eskreis-Winkler, L., & Fishbach, A. (2022). You think failure is hard? So is learning from it. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 17(6), 1511–1524. https://doi.org/10.1177/17456916211059817

Greenleaf, R. K. (1970). The servant as leader (an essay). Greenleaf Organization.

Transformational leadership vs. servant leadership: 3 key differences. (n.d.). Retrieved April 2, 2025, from https://ideas.bkconnection.com/transformational-leadership-vs.-servant-leadership-3-key-differences

Vittori, D., Natalicchio, A., Panniello, U., Messeni Petruzzelli, A., Albino, V., & Cupertino, F. (2024). Failure is an option: How failure can lead to disruptive innovations. Technovation, 129, 102897. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.technovation.2023.102897

Waldner, S. (2023). Resilient leadership. Scandinavian Journal for, 10. https://doi.org/10.53311/sjlt.v10.78