What Great Leaders Do When Things Go Wrong
- Sonji Phillips
- Sep 10
- 6 min read
Failure happens. What matters most is how leaders respond when it does.
No matter how skilled, experienced, or prepared you are as a leader, things will go wrong. A strategy will fail. A deadline will be missed. A key hire won’t work out. You’ll make a decision that backfires. Maybe you'll say the wrong thing—or not say enough.
It’s part of the leadership contract: you don’t just lead through the wins, you lead through the mess.
Yet too many leaders freeze, panic, blame others, or retreat when mistakes happen. Not because they lack ability—but because they’ve never been shown a better way. The truth is, what separates great leaders from everyone else isn’t perfection. It’s how they show up when failure knocks on the door.
In this blog, we’ll explore a four-step framework great leaders use when things go wrong—one that turns mistakes into momentum, deepens trust, and builds long-term team resilience.
Why the Way You Respond Matters So Much
When things go off the rails, your team watches you more closely than ever. Not just what you say—but how you say it. Not just how you respond to others’ mistakes—but how you take ownership of your own.
These moments send powerful signals:
Do you take responsibility, or shift blame?
Do you seek solutions, or dwell on the problem?
Do you listen, or shut down the conversation?
In tough moments, your team decides—often unconsciously—how much they trust you, how safe it is to speak up, and whether they’ll follow you next time the path gets unclear.
So how do great leaders respond when things go wrong?
Step 1: Pause Before You React
The first instinct when something fails is to react. Emotions spike. Tensions rise. Leaders feel pressure to do something—fast. But great leaders don’t react impulsively. They pause.
This doesn’t mean ignoring the issue. It means stepping back—emotionally and mentally—long enough to respond with intention.
Why it matters:
Reacting in frustration, anger, or anxiety often makes a bad situation worse. A hasty email, a sharp tone, or a rushed judgment can erode morale or trust in seconds.
What great leaders do:
Take a moment to process privately.
Ground themselves emotionally (walk, breathe, journal—even for 5 minutes).
Get clear on the facts before drawing conclusions.
Ask, “What does my team need from me right now?”
This moment of pause often sets the tone for everything that follows.
Step 2: Own the Impact—Without Spinning or Deflecting
Once the dust settles, the first leadership move should be ownership. Not finger-pointing. Not sugarcoating. Not corporate spin. Just clear, honest accountability.
If the mistake was yours, say so. If the team fell short, own your role in leading them there. If the situation is complex, acknowledge that too—without using complexity as an excuse.
Why it matters:
Accountability from the top creates a culture of trust and psychological safety. When leaders take ownership, it signals: We don’t punish failure—we learn from it.
Deflecting blame, on the other hand, teaches people to hide problems and protect themselves rather than solve issues.
What great leaders do:
Acknowledge what went wrong—clearly and calmly.
Own their part in it.
Avoid scapegoating, even if others contributed to the problem.
Communicate with transparency: “Here’s what happened. Here’s what we’re doing next.”
A powerful leadership phrase:
“I take full responsibility—and I’m committed to making it right.”
Step 3: Lead the Learning Process
Once ownership is established, great leaders don’t rush to move on. They take time to learn—with the team. This is where growth happens. Not just fixing what failed, but understanding why it happened and how to prevent it in the future.
This isn’t a blame session. It’s a collaborative, constructive review.
Why it matters:
Learning creates resilience. When teams are allowed to reflect safely and openly, they become stronger, sharper, and less afraid to take initiative next time.
What great leaders do:
Facilitate a team debrief or retrospective.
Ask learning-based questions:
What went wrong—and what contributed to it?
What did we miss or overlook?
What would we do differently next time?
What systems, habits, or communication gaps played a role?
Then, they share the learnings visibly—so the whole organization grows, not just the people closest to the issue.
This is how great leaders turn short-term setbacks into long-term strength.
Step 4: Rebuild Confidence and Refocus the Team
After a failure, morale often dips. Confidence takes a hit. Doubt can linger.
Great leaders know this—and they don’t leave their team in that headspace. Instead, they take proactive steps to rebuild momentum and focus the group on what’s next.
Why it matters:
Failure without a path forward can leave teams stuck. But failure with renewed direction builds maturity, clarity, and drive.
What great leaders do:
Reaffirm the team’s capabilities and value: “This was a miss—but it doesn’t define us.”
Share a clear plan or next step: “Here’s how we’re moving forward.”
Empower people with new roles, support, or resources if needed.
Celebrate recovery milestones, not just end goals.
They also remind the team: failure isn’t fatal. In fact, it’s often the fastest path to excellence—when handled well.
What Not to Do When Things Go Wrong
While knowing what to do in a leadership crisis is essential, it's just as important to understand what not to do. Poor responses can damage morale, erode trust, and deepen the fallout from an already challenging situation.
Here are five common missteps that great leaders avoid:
1. Blaming Others Immediately
Throwing your team under the bus—or even subtly shifting blame—may protect your ego in the short term, but it destroys psychological safety. People stop speaking up, stop taking initiative, and start playing it safe. Accountability starts at the top. If something went wrong, own your part first.
2. Going Silent
In an effort to “wait it out,” some leaders retreat when things go wrong, assuming silence will ease the tension. It won’t. When leaders go quiet, teams fill the vacuum with speculation, anxiety, or distrust. Don’t disappear. Communicate—early and often.
3. Overcorrecting with Control
It’s tempting to respond to failure by clamping down—micromanaging, adding excessive check-ins, or second-guessing every move. This might feel like leadership, but it signals panic. Instead of regaining control, you weaken your team’s confidence and autonomy.
4. Ignoring the Emotional Impact
Failure often carries an emotional cost—disappointment, frustration, even embarrassment. Ignoring this in favor of “just moving on” sends the message that feelings don’t matter. Great leaders acknowledge the human side of failure, allowing space for reflection and recovery.
5. Pretending It Didn’t Happen
Minimizing or glossing over the problem may feel like staying positive, but it creates confusion. Teams need clarity and honesty, not denial. Pretending everything’s fine undermines credibility and leads to repeated mistakes.
Avoiding these leadership pitfalls helps you navigate tough moments with integrity and effectiveness—turning even the hardest setbacks into opportunities for growth.
A Real-World Leadership Snapshot
Take the example of a product launch that completely flops—a missed window, a marketing misfire, customer feedback gone sideways.
A reactionary leader might:
Panic and pressure the team.
Fire off blaming emails.
Cancel meetings and go silent.
Micromanage the next attempt.
A great leader would:
Meet with the team, stay calm, and acknowledge the miss.
Own where leadership strategy failed.
Host a post-mortem discussion with openness and curiosity.
Pivot with a revised plan, co-created with the team.
Celebrate resilience just as much as success.
Same event. Totally different outcomes.
When Leaders Make Personal Mistakes
Not all leadership failures are team-wide. Sometimes, you mess up individually. You make a poor judgment call. You miss a deadline. You give feedback that landed badly. You speak when you should’ve listened.
Great leaders don’t hide these moments. They model accountability at the personal level.
What great leaders do:
Apologize when needed—genuinely.
Reflect and name what they’ve learned.
Change behavior visibly to rebuild trust.
This shows the team: it’s okay to fail. What matters is how we recover, grow, and stay human in the process.
Encouraging a Culture That Welcomes Mistakes
The most innovative teams aren’t those that never fail. They’re the ones that recover faster and smarter—because they’re led by people who don’t fear failure. They use it.
Here’s how great leaders embed this mindset:
They normalize small mistakes and treat them as learning points.
They praise smart risk-taking—even when it doesn’t work out.
They talk openly about their own failures and recoveries.
They teach their team that feedback isn’t punishment—it’s progress.
When your team sees failure as a stepping stone, not a trap door, they take bigger swings. And bigger swings often lead to breakthroughs.
Final Thoughts: The Real Test of Leadership
It’s easy to lead when everything is going right. But the real test—the true measure of leadership—is how you respond when it doesn’t.
Great leaders stay calm in the chaos.They choose responsibility over blame.They turn missteps into momentum.And most of all, they lead in a way that brings people closer—not pushes them away.
Remember, your response in a crisis speaks louder than any speech during a celebration. It shapes culture, earns trust, and sets a lasting example.
A Simple Framework to Remember
When things go wrong, follow this:
Pause. Don’t react—respond.
Own it. Lead with accountability, not excuses.
Learn together. Reflect before you reset.
Refocus. Rebuild energy, trust, and direction.
You won’t always get it right. But if you lead with humility, clarity, and courage—you’ll earn something far more valuable than perfection: a team that trusts you, grows with you, and follows you through the hard parts, too
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