Rethinking Failure: 1 Powerful Tip to Advance Your Career

Jill Griffin coaches professionals who pivot between loving and hating their jobs.

As a career performance coach and business strategist who works with start-ups, brands, and businesses, She has had the profound pleasure of coaching hundreds of clients and peers to achieve their personal and professional goals. She helps them rethink and rewrite their future.

The entire copywriting project consisted of creating 1 email and 2 social media captions for Jill Griffin using content from her podcast. In this document, I want to focus on the email.

Jill asked me to transform snippets of content from her podcast, The Career Refresh Podcast, into a captivating email for her career-focused audience.

Jill's goal is to provide valuable insights and guidance for senior managers, CFOs, SVPs, and executives to enhance their careers and foster continuous growth.

Jill primarily caters to executive leadership, including directors and department heads in prominent tech companies like Facebook, TikTok, Amazon, Google, etc. She also engages with SVPs, VPs, and members of the C-suite, such as CMOs, CSOs, and CFOs, who hold senior positions but may not be the CEO.

Preview line: This changes everything

Hey there [First Name],

When you think of the last time you experienced a failure, what comes up for you? Do you loathe the idea of failing anything or anyone? Or do you wear failure like a loose garment?

Maybe you’ve sent out tons of resumes without a response, or you just found out you didn’t get the job, or you believe you’ll never get the promotion.

In response, you might feel anxiousness, embarrassed, or start doubting your expertise.

I get it, we often don’t work in environments that are excepting of failure beyond a John C. Maxwell ‘fail forward’ quote on the wall.

And, It can be difficult to experience any instance of failure, especially in leadership positions. I mean, isn’t everyone watching?

I'm gonna guess, your thoughts about failure didn’t miracle grow overnight or magically appear when you moved into your leadership position. Fear of failure most likely was instilled in you since you were young.

Most of us learned pretty quickly through direct and indirect messages that failing is wrong. Shameful even.

In school if you didn’t do well on a test or if you didn’t do it “right” you failed.

The more you failed in school, the less success you achieved.

This fear of failure stuck with you.

But I will tell you as both a former employee, a C-suite executive and now 6.5 years into my entrepreneurial journey, failure gets you to success.

Notice I didn’t write ‘It doesn’t suck.’ It can suck. But it’s the path to success.

When I learned how to manage my fear and change my relationship towards failure, I started to exponentially succeed.

Success comes from continually looking at your actions, along with your thoughts, and seeing the results you created.

Moving forward, it’s super important to make sure your thoughts are aligned with your next set of actions. Trying something and subtly thinking ‘this is never going to work’ means you’re taking action from a place of doubt. Being curious and asking ‘what’s possible?’ as you take the next set of actions is going to create different results.

Everyone (even the ‘Perfect Paula’ or ‘Flawless Finn’, you know, the ones people praise in the workplace) has experienced failure at one point in their career. Failure happens. Instead of avoiding failure like the plague you need to face it head-on.

Ask your mentor or CEO about times they’ve experienced failure in their careers. They will most likely have plenty to say. This will also tell you a lot about the nuanced or veiled culture within your organization. Talking about failure shouldn’t be ‘taboo’ in the workplace, it should be welcomed.

Resistance to failure leaves you stagnant and keeps you small. It keeps you from not taking chances and not trying new things. When I try something new and it doesn’t work, I reframe my thoughts to ‘I’m one step closer to finding what will work.’

So, if you need a strategic and safe space for effective ways to move through failure, I’m your gal. Let’s talk. Schedule a free consultation call HERE.

Here’s to possibility,

Jill Griffin

Executive Coach & Career Strategist

Professional Certified Coach, International Coaching Federation

P.S. If you are interested in developing your career narrative, elevating your resume, and nailing the interview, and figuring out what’s next.