Does failure equal growth? That’s a great question! Let me share a short story of how I chose to grow after a leadership failure.

I had only been at LifeWay Christian Resources for a few months when my manager approached me. He told me he saw leadership potential in me and wanted to begin training me for greater responsibility. I was grateful—and proud—that he noticed my skills and wanted to help me grow.

Soon after, I began training as the lead inventory control specialist. This role carried significant responsibility: managing logistics for the retail store, handling sensitive financial data, overseeing the inventory system, and even holding keys. I felt honored, but also a little prideful. Looking back, Proverbs 16:18 rings true: “Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall” (ESV).

One of my duties was to monitor and input inventory data. On a particular day, several shipments arrived, including a plain brown box sealed with orange tape bearing the LifeWay logo. It looked like all the others, so I processed it and shelved the contents. Later, my assistant manager asked me about a box with orange tape. This one, she explained, contained personal gifts for our store manager—books, Bibles, CDs, and more—sent directly from corporate.

Panic hit me. I had mistakenly placed his gifts somewhere among thousands of items on the shelves of our 10,000-square-foot store. With no other option, I spent an hour combing through shelves, doing my best to reassemble what I thought was the original set. Still unsure, I left a handwritten note on his desk, confessing my mistake.

The next day, I braced for the conversation I had been dreading. My manager pulled me aside, having read my note. To my surprise, he told me that in that moment he knew I could be trusted—that I was someone he could count on. What I had viewed as a tremendous failure became, in his eyes, a demonstration of integrity and an opportunity for growth.

So where was the failure? A wise leader knows the right questions to ask and when to ask them. I failed in both respects. Yet that failure turned into a turning point. Since then, I’ve faced many more leadership challenges—some successful, some not—but each has shaped my growth.

So again, does failure equal growth? It should. We all fail as leaders, but what we do with that failure is what truly matters.

Leadership Development: Three Phases

In The Making of a Leader, Robert Clinton describes leadership development in three phases: osmosis, baby steps, and maturity. I believe these phases provide a helpful framework for shaping one’s ministry philosophy.

Osmosis

The first phase is osmosis—adapting to the culture of the organization. This is when young leaders observe, absorb, and experiment with different approaches. Leaders “don’t know what they don’t know.” In my own journey, I realized early on that my organization was committed to servant leadership, and through osmosis, I began to embrace that philosophy myself. As Clinton notes, “Personal lessons, which affect ministry philosophy, are learned via critical incidents” (p. 161). These incidents reveal how leaders respond under pressure and give us models—good or bad—to shape our own philosophy.

Baby Steps

The second phase is baby steps. Here, leaders begin to discover their philosophy more explicitly through practice and reflection. Progress is made slowly, but steadily. Tom Baker once said, “It’s the important little baby steps which teach us how to grow. Moving up just one small notch will help us more than we know.” This stage emphasizes learning, asking questions, and practicing consistency. My story at LifeWay fits this phase—small but significant lessons in integrity, responsibility, and humility.

Maturity

The final phase is maturity. This is the longest and deepest stage, where leaders formulate and clearly articulate their leadership philosophy to others. Maturity requires wisdom, discernment, and consistent engagement with both people and circumstances. As Theo Veldsman writes, “Leadership maturity is a leader’s ability to engage consistently with him or herself, others, and the world by being: relevant, productive, and uplifting.” Growth may not always come as quickly as we hope, but maturity calls us to stay the course, making sound judgments and continuing to learn.

Final Thoughts

The LifeWay story represents one of my early “baby steps” in leadership. I was still learning, but I had the benefit of a manager who had reached maturity. His response to my failure not only covered my mistake but also modeled the kind of leader I wanted to become.

Today, I continue to take steps—sometimes small, sometimes weighty—toward building a ministry philosophy grounded in servant leadership.

So, does failure equal growth? It depends on us. Failure by itself doesn’t guarantee growth, but if we choose to learn from it, it can become one of the greatest catalysts for developing into the leaders God has called us to be.

References

• Baker, T. (n.d.). Tom Baker Quote. Retrieved December 03, 2020, from https://quotefancy.com/quote/1079075/Tom-Baker-I-ve-learned-It-s-the-important-little-baby-steps-which-teaches-us-how-to-grow
• Clinton, J. R. (2012). The making of a leader: Recognizing the lessons and stages of leadership development. Colorado Springs, CO: NavPress.
• Veldsman, T. (2018, September 19). Maturity makes great leaders: The journey from dwarf to giant. Retrieved December 03, 2020, from https://theconversation.com/maturity-makes-great-leaders-the-journey-from-dwarf-to-giant-6147