Four Ways To Bounce Back After a Loss
Great teams learn how to bounce back after a loss. Great people do as well.
So, how do you bounce back after a difficult Sunday? Or Board meeting? Or a message you weren’t fully prepared to deliver? Or a volunteer resignation? How do you deal with the raw emotions that surface and work to rise above them? What’s your bounce-back plan?
Four Ways To Bounce Back After a Loss
1. Don’t release the pain too quickly.
The goal here is to learn. It’s easy to go into an excuse-making mode or to secretly blame others. Learning from a loss helps leverage the loss. Ask these four questions below of yourself and your team. The answers will help you extract as much value from the loss as possible.
Where did our preparation fail us?
What assumptions did we make going in that proved wrong?
Is there a consistent pattern here or just a one-time fluke?
Knowing what we know now, what changes can we make?
Losses often provide lessons that wins do not. Winners leverage the losses in order to avoid more losing.
2. Don’t hold onto the pain too long.
The late Dallas Willard was talking about the battle every communicator has after giving a talk. They begin to go over the talk and beat themselves up over not having given the talk perfectly. That’s why Dallas encourages communicators with this helpful insight: “At some point, you have to release your words.”
How about 24 hours? By Monday noon hour I was usually able to fully release Sunday’s foibles. Learn from it, release it after 24 hours, and take a step toward the future.
3. Find a small win in the next five days.
The best antidote to losing is winning. It’s why you must find a win, even if it’s small. Preparation is a win. The best thing you can do is evaluate what you could have done better and focus on the hard work of preparation.
Here are some examples of small wins:
Answer the four questions from Step #1 above.
Begin the preparation process for the next meeting/message/responsibility.
Share with someone how you’re doing. Allow them to help you process.
Small wins are the best ways to deal with big losses.
4. Allow the loss to redefine the win.
One of the most important roles for any leader is to define what winning looks like. This sounds easy but it’s actually quite scary. Once you define what a win looks like, you then set yourself up to be accountable. Ensure that your measurable wins advance your godly purpose and vision. Then you can honestly celebrate wins and pray through and prepare for comebacks after setbacks. When what you do matters to God he can make all things work together for good.
It's time to get honest...
What are you known for?
What do you want to be known for?
You may be thinking of that gap as a loss.
But it isn't.
It's an opportunity.