Remember when you learned to ride a bike? Remember how you struggled to balance? Maybe you pedalled three or four times, and then fell. Then again and again. Eventually though you figured it out and you were riding like you’d been doing it your whole life.
What would have happened if the person who taught you to ride your bike, refused to let you fall?
What if instead of letting go of the seat and allowing you to struggle to figure out how to balance, the person teaching you to ride kept holding on?
What if they refused to let you tip over? How much longer would it have taken for you to learn to ride your bike? Would you even have learned at all?
As student leadership teachers, you have the unique opportunity to guide your students not only through their successes but also through their failures, helping them develop resilience and the tools they need to lead in the future. In a world that increasingly attempts to shield young people from failure, disappointment, and setbacks, perhaps the best thing you can do to prepare your students for the future is to allow them the room to try, fail, and learn from their mistakes.
When done in a safe environment, with mentors to help them process and learn from it, failing is one of the most valuable gifts you can give your students. In my book The Resilience Roadmap, I discuss how failure can build resilience. Here are a few quick practical ideas to implement this idea in the classroom:
1. Reframe Failure as Feedback
One of the most important lessons you can teach student leaders is that failure isn’t the end of the road—it’s a form of feedback. Instead of viewing failure as something to be avoided or feared, help students see it as an opportunity for growth.
Encourage your students to ask themselves questions like:
“What did I learn from this?”
“What can I do differently next time?”
By shifting their mindset, students will begin to understand that failure is not a reflection of their overall abilities or self-worth. Instead, it’s a stepping stone in the learning process. In The Resilience Roadmap, I emphasize the importance of seeing failure as an event, not an identity.
Students need to know they are not defined by their setbacks, but by how they respond to them.
This shift in perspective helps cultivate a growth mindset, where students learn to embrace challenges and develop a belief in their capacity to improve. As a teacher, you can support this process by offering constructive feedback when they fail, helping them extract valuable lessons
and encouraging them to apply what they’ve learned in future endeavors.
2. Model Vulnerability and Share Your Own Failures
Students often feel pressure to appear perfect, especially when they are in leadership roles. They may fear that admitting failure could undermine their authority or diminish their standing
among peers. To counteract this, model vulnerability by sharing your own experiences with failure.
When students see that even successful adults—teachers, coaches, or mentors—fail and recover, it normalizes the idea that failure is part of the journey. This also builds trust between you and your students. They begin to understand that failure isn’t a source of shame but rather
a tool for growth. By being open about your challenges, you create a safe environment where students feel empowered to take risks and make mistakes.
Vulnerability fosters connection and authenticity. As a student leadership teacher, you have the chance to demonstrate that leaders are not infallible. They’re human, just like everyone else.
And it’s through those human moments—those failures and recoveries—that we often grow the most. Your openness will inspire your students to be more comfortable embracing their own vulnerabilities as they step into leadership roles.
3. Celebrate Effort, Not Just Results
In a culture that often equates success with perfection, it’s vital to teach students that effort matters just as much, if not more, than the final result. By focusing solely on outcomes, students can become overly fixated on avoiding failure, which can stifle creativity and innovation.
Instead, shift the emphasis to the effort they put into their work: Acknowledge the time, energy, and persistence they demonstrated, even if the end result wasn’t perfect. Celebrate the process of trying, learning, and growing, not just the outcome.
In doing this, you reinforce the idea that failure is a natural part of any learning curve. This approach also helps students take pride in their progress and persistence, even when they fall
short of their goals. By fostering an environment where effort is recognized and valued, you’ll help students feel safe to take on challenges, knowing they’ll be supported regardless of the outcome.
Encouraging students to stay committed to the process, even when they fail, builds this resilience. They learn that their value as leaders comes from their persistence and their willingness to keep going, not from achieving perfection on the first try.
Conclusion: Failure as a Leadership Tool
Ultimately, failure is not something to be feared—it’s a tool for growth. As a student leadership teacher, your role is crucial in helping students understand that failure is part of the journey toward becoming a strong leader. By reframing failure as feedback, modelling vulnerability, and celebrating effort over results, you’ll equip your students with the resilience they need to overcome challenges and thrive as future leaders.
As you teach your students these principles, they’ll not only grow as leaders, but they’ll also carry these lessons into their lives beyond school, becoming resilient individuals who aren’t afraid to fail and learn. Remember, the leaders of tomorrow are shaped by how they face failure today.
To learn more or book Mark for a presentation, check out his speaking page here