[Warning - this rant contains an idea for businesses that are looking to hire - Courage not supplied]
I recently read a post talking about leaders embracing failure and learning from it. First, can we stop talking about the leaders? Why does everything in this world have to be about the top few? There are far more followers walking around than leaders. Someone has to like the LinkedIn posts after all.
But this rant is not about our ongoing worship of leadership. The one thing I have learnt from this life (or was it the last one, I keep mixing them up) is that we create the worst incentives and then act surprised when everything falls apart. Some classic examples. We celebrate wealth and then gasp when people do unethical or illegal things for money. We reward high grades and then wonder why students cannot find a genuine love of learning even if it slapped them with a hardcover textbook. We glorify bite sized content and then wonder why kids look at books like they are ancient artifacts. We pile pressure on children and then politely ask why mental health issues are rising.
We can talk endlessly about learning from failure, but what incentives have we actually built for that to happen? In one of my courses I talk to young university students about failure and the fear that surrounds it. The answer is almost always the same. The fear is rooted in the shame that follows it around like a loyal pet.
It feels a little disingenuous to praise the winners and then turn to the non winners (can we retire the word losers) and say that they should learn from defeat. What we really teach them is to do whatever it takes to win next time so that they never have to feel that shame again. If we truly want to embrace failure, can we start celebrating it? Can we remove the shame from losing and treat it as a normal part of human life instead of a moral scandal?
So here is the idea.
Stop asking candidates for resumes or CVs when they apply for a job. Ask them for a failure CV instead. A document that outlines their journey and highlights the failures along with what they learnt. That kind of CV would be far more honest and far more useful than the usual glossy masterpiece that looks like it was written by a motivational speaker with a thesaurus. According to CHATur GuPTa, no major company uses a failure CV. Apparently it is an academic hobby used to convince students that we really mean it when we say failure is good for them.
I am tired of tiny ideas masquerading as bold. Companies should stop asking the usual question of “Tell me about a time you failed and what you learnt”. Be brave. If failure really builds character, then let people show their character. Ask applicants to reflect on all their failures. Invite them to grow right there on paper. This will eventually become the norm once Meta or Apple embrace it.
So let us hire the best losers and build our future losses together. What’s the worst that can happen? You will lose?
A CV That Is Not Bovine Excrement
