The new performance playbook: How to embrace Olympic resilience in the workplace

During the 2024 Paris Olympics, Uta Abe, a Japanese world Judo champion and 3-time Olympic medalist, faced a heart-wrenching defeat that left her in floods of tears.

This moment of vulnerability highlighted the intense emotional toll that failure can exact, especially when the stakes are high.

In contrast, 11-time Olympic medalist America gymnast Simone Biles took a different approach at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics by courageously stepping back from several events.

By prioritizing her mental health, Biles set an example for organizations on the importance of mental wellbeing as a foundation for long-term success.

Her comeback in the 2024 Paris Olympics, reclaiming her position as one of the world’s top gymnasts, demonstrates that taking a step back can lead to even greater achievements.

This is the new face of success in our uncertain times.

Failure is important. It teaches us what we should stop doing, start doing, or do differently, making it an essential catalyst for growth, innovation, and ultimate success.

Failure provides invaluable learning opportunities that success often cannot. It forces us to reassess our assumptions, refine our strategies, and develop resilience.

In the workplace, just as in high-stakes environments like the Olympics, turning failures into learning experiences can be a springboard for growth and innovation.

So, if failure is not the opposite of success but rather an integral part of the journey towards it, what can we learn from these Olympic stories of failure and redemption?

For organizations, and specifically HR leaders, translating these lessons into actionable strategies is critical for workplace success.

Individuals – Crafting a failure resume

As individuals, we need to reframe how we view setbacks at work.

Just as an athlete analyzes every aspect of their performance, win or lose, we must help our employees approach professional challenges as learning opportunities.

Stanford professor Tina Seelig, in her book “What I Wish I Knew When I Was 20,” talks about a “failure resume,” focusing on what didn’t quite go according to plan.

This practice transforms failure from a source of shame into a valuable learning tool.

Next Steps: Encourage employees to document their failures, not as a source of shame, but as a way to gain insights that drive future success as part of individual development plans and career growth strategies.

Teams – Implementing failure review sessions

Team dynamics can greatly benefit from regular, constructive failure reviews.

Management consultant Rita Gunther McGrath, in her Harvard Business Review article “Failing by Design“, suggests instituting these reviews not to assign blame but to extract valuable insights.

HR leaders can play a pivotal role in facilitating these sessions, ensuring they are safe spaces for honest reflection and learning.

Conducting monthly team meetings to analyze recent setbacks and focus on lessons learned can drive continuous improvement and innovation.

Next Steps: Encourage managers to schedule regular team meetings dedicated to reviewing failures and help them create a safe space where team members can speak openly without fear of blame.

Management – Fostering psychological safety

Leaders play a crucial role in creating an environment where employees feel safe to take risks, fail, and learn.

Psychological safety is essential for fostering innovation and resilience.

Harvard Business School professor Amy C. Edmondson introduced the concept of “learning behaviors“, where leaders share personal examples that are potentially embarrassing and bring interpersonal risk.

HR leaders must champion this approach, helping managers understand the value of vulnerability and open communication in building trust and driving innovation.

This openness allows leaders to discuss their own failures and the lessons learned, creating a ripple effect that empowers employees at all levels to take calculated risks and share their learnings openly.

Next Steps: Provide training and resources for managers to foster psychological safety within their teams including role modeling vulnerability by sharing their own failures and lessons learned. Ensure recognition programs reward risk-taking and learning from mistakes.

Organization – Promoting wellbeing

We can’t ignore the role of wellbeing in this equation.

Simone Biles showed us that peak performance isn’t sustainable without attending to our mental and emotional health.

In today’s work environment, HR leaders must integrate wellbeing into the core of business and managerial decisions.

This isn’t about another department fun event or a wellness budget. It’s about fundamentally changing organizational processes to prioritize employee wellbeing, ensuring that the workplace supports, rather than hinders, long-term success.

Next Steps: Ensure managers ask their people what they need to succeed. Implement measures to address these needs holistically, and hold managers accountable for fostering environments that prioritize well-being.

As we navigate this age of uncertainty, our approach to failure will define our success. The Olympics remind us that even the world’s best stumble – but it’s how they respond that sets them apart.

In our professional lives, and especially within HR leadership, embracing this ethos of resilience, continuous learning, and intelligent risk-taking will pave the way for a more adaptable and successful future.

The future belongs not to those who never fail, but to those who fail forward – learning, adapting, and rising stronger with each setback.

As leaders, HR professionals, and organizations, it’s time we rewrite our relationship with failure. In doing so, we’ll unlock levels of innovation, adaptability, and success that we never thought possible.

Are you ready to embrace failure as your secret weapon in navigating the future of work? The starting line awaits – let’s race towards a more resilient, innovative future together.