Trying recently to help a colleague achieve a significant goal, I felt stymied by some invisible barrier she could not seem to cross. It was almost as if there was a wall she saw or felt that no one else knew about…and maybe she didn’t even realize it herself.

Suddenly, I thought, “Well, she DOES have the freedom to fail. Both possibilities – success AND failure – are there. And we would like to pretend they’re not.”

Her Grand Canyon-sized worries? Maybe she has no plan to address the worst of the things she’s worried about. If not, we can talk about those, cut them down to size, and work out the alternatives she has.

The freedom to fail. The freedom to succeed. They’re both there – always – especially if the goal is a big one.

As managers, as leaders, we need to help the learners, the performers or the team to see, to acknowledge, to prepare. And if we do…if we are honest about the chances to succeed AND fail…the chances of success become stronger.

How about you? Do you try to pretend that failure is not, as they say, an option? How? Where? What worries are lurking in your corner that you need to address, to prepare for?

Only acknowledging and preparing, in detail and in bearing, prepares someone to be able to respond to whatever happens. And isn’t that readiness to respond – whatever comes about – really the key, in many cases, to success?

The full freedom of choice – that’s in the hands, and mind and heart of the learner, him or herself. Ultimately, you can’t protect the person doing the task from the full consequence-laden freedom to fail.

Teach, guide, prepare, but at some point you must step aside and let them see what they can do, on their own.

Forget the Olympics…who would have guessed they’d have to give astronauts drug tests now before they strapped in?

Or to tell them not to get blasted, before they blasted off?

Somehow you would THINK you wouldn’t have to document that common sense call…but apparently…you do.

What’s the work of leadership – for starters – that NASA has ahead?

When I’m testing an idea or plan, I often run it through a triple filter, the head, heart and gut check.

I advise it to clients, too, when their planning seems forced, or just doesn’t flow.

Try it yourself when you’re testing your next big idea. It might give you ideas about which way to go:

1. Does the idea make sense? Is it logical? Does it seem right, when you think about it?

2. Does it feel right, when you give it the heart check? Do you feel good, inspired, aligned when you think of it?

3. Finally, what’s your visceral response to the idea? At the most basic level, does the idea feel like a good one for YOU? Will you feel proud if it works, and if it doesn’t, proud for having tried and grown?