What Great Leaders Really Do When Someone Fails

A reflection from What Makes an Effective Executive by Peter F. Drucker

This is part of the "Meller Highlights" series with reflections from my personal book highlights.

One thing I’ve been trying to do every day is to pick one idea from my reading and think about how to actually apply it.

Not just understand it in theory, but find a way to live it a little.

Today’s highlight: What Makes an Effective Executive by Peter F. Drucker

Effective executives know this and check up (six to nine months later) on the results of their people decisions. If they find that a decision has not had the desired results, they don’t conclude that the person has not performed. They conclude, instead, that they themselves made a mistake. In a well-managed enterprise, it is understood that people who fail in a new job, especially after a promotion, may not be the ones to blame.

It’s much easier to blame the person. To think they weren’t ready. That they didn’t have what it takes. That maybe we expected too much from them.

But Drucker points the mirror back at us. If the decision didn’t work out, maybe the mistake wasn’t about the person.

Maybe the mistake was ours.

Maybe we picked too soon.
Maybe we didn’t set expectations clearly.
Maybe we didn’t support enough when the pressure started building.
Maybe we just assumed people would figure things out on their own.

It’s a tough but important shift. Real leadership starts when we accept that our responsibility doesn’t end when we make a decision. It keeps going. It stays alive through how we support, coach, check in, and adjust.

One small practice that can help is keeping a "people decision" log. Nothing fancy. Just a place where you write down when you promote someone, hire someone, trust someone with a big project. Write what you decided and why you believed it was right. It helps a lot later because memory is tricky, and stories in our head change with time.

Then, set a reminder for six months later. Not to control people or to judge them, but to ask real questions. Did they have what they needed to succeed? Did we guide enough? Was the role really what we thought it would be? Was the timing right?

When things don’t go as planned, it’s easy to feel disappointed or frustrated.

But disappointment without reflection doesn’t teach anything.

Choosing people is one decision. Helping them succeed after the decision is the real job.

Leadership is a long game of responsibility, not just big decisions.

Have you ever seen this happen in your own experience? I’d love to hear what you think.

This is your tip today, inspired by one of my highlights from What Makes an Effective Executive by Peter F. Drucker.

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