Overcoming failure and managing fear

In 2025, leadership was reframed as the ability to manage uncertainty and crisis. Public scrutiny and high expectations, combined with the real risk of making critical errors, amplified fear in the leadership experience. Success was less about past record and more about untested capabilities: leading under immense pressure, with fear as a pronounced factor, and responding effectively when plans inevitably failed. 

 

Managers found that leadership extends beyond big decisions, to the daily dilemmas, often unseen, that are vital to an organisation’s success. Many realised that leadership can also be profoundly lonely.

 

 

Unmasking fear (without letting it drive you)

The challenge of leading under extreme duress became acutely real for me in early 2020, shortly after becoming President of African Leadership University. The institution, with two campuses in Mauritius and Rwanda and 2,000 students, was still in its start-up phase, focused on financial health, academic standards, and building trust with stakeholders. The rapidly approaching global pandemic presented an existential threat.

 

On March 16, 2020, facing the imminent unknown of COVID-19, I was afraid. The biggest decision of my tenure - whether to keep the school open - loomed large. With little knowledge about the virus, and the death toll rising, the potential worst-case scenario for the students was deeply alarming. After an all-day meeting, the management team’s discussion shifted from if the pandemic would spread to when, and then what we must do.

 

The choices were stark: stay open and risk lives, or close and risk the fragile institution. The decision, and the fear it brought, were mine, as President, to own.

 

I focused on three questions: 

1. How could I protect and sustain the core mission of the institution?
2. What exactly was I afraid of?
3. What was the one thing that could not happen in any scenario? 

Ultimately, the decision was made to close the university, and students were successfully returned to their homes in over 49 countries. Within a week, both host countries went into full lockdown, and within two weeks, the university had transitioned online.

 

Reflecting on my questions:

 

Mission: I resolved that the institution could not live under the distraction and uncertainty of a "wait and see" approach. Clear, protective action was necessary to allow the community to focus on our mission and students.

 

Specific fear: I recognised that I was personalising the decision: the burden of making a huge call without conclusive data, the fear of being wrong, losing credibility, and facing disappointed parents. By shifting the focus away from myself, I gained more clarity.

 

The non-negotiable: The absolutely decisive factor was the safety of the community. The one thing that could not happen was the loss of a life to the pandemic. I could live with disappointed students and angry parents if the closure turned out to be unnecessary, but could not live with a fatality resulting from inaction. Ultimately, my decision was grounded in the commitment to not risk lives, regardless of the consequences for my own standing.

 

Leader takeaway: Engage fear with logical inquiry. Set ego aside and make integrity a non-negotiable. Then act.

 

 

Growing from failure (especially when you think you did your best)

Following the campus evacuations and country lockdowns, our team worked tirelessly to build a new operating model, transitioning the physical campus to an online environment. Amazing outcomes were achieved under immense pressure. Exuberant, I sent a heartfelt note of praise to staff and faculty and complimented two colleagues privately.

 

The feedback I received was surprising: my praise of the two colleagues landed as condescension—as my surprise that they had managed to pull things off—suggesting my low expectations of them. As a new leader, I hadn’t yet built the necessary trust—earlier comments during my onboarding had been perceived as critical of them and left a residue, causing my gratitude to be misinterpreted when I most wanted the organization to feel confident. My failure wasn’t in my intent, but in my impact. I had missed the relational state of the system long before the incident.

 

When facing failure, leaders must avoid defensiveness and self-pity. Instead, they should: 

1. Own the failure and name it.
2. Amend the mistake in a timely and sincere manner.
3. Turn the failure into a teaching or learning opportunity. 

Own and amend: I apologised to my two staff for how my message landed and initiated conversations with them to establish a better means of communication, including offering them the safety to provide me with real-time feedback going forward.

 

Build: My failure ultimately revealed room for cultural growth, leading to a comprehensive conversation about culture that used the pandemic-response successes as pillars of what the university did well and how we would all relate as one team.

 

Self-righteousness and ego are major obstacles to recovering from failure. Practising humility builds the temperament for a considered response and recovery.

 

Leader takeaway: Make failure productive. When leaders model a calm, curious, and fast response, teams gain permission to experiment, correct, and compound progress - precisely what turbulence demands.

 

 

Looking forward

As global uncertainty continues into 2026, leaders will continue to face fear, paralysis, failure, and dejection. I urge all leaders to embrace three beliefs: 

1. Leaders should lead: their fundamental role is to help organizations reach a better, healthy, and sustainable place.
2. Leaders must be courageous: with few precedents to rely on, leaders must act decisively in spite of the fear and risks they face.
3. Leaders must keep ego in check: whether responding to fear or reacting to failure, remember that leadership is service to others; it is not about the leader. 

Leadership is sometimes a lonely journey, but it is a journey that must always begin with a look inward. The coming year will continue to test this. 

 

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Christopher O.H. Williams is a business consultant, executive mentor and public speaker on strategy and transformation. He is  the author of C.O.U.R.A.G.E., an empowering guide that combines real-life stories, personal experiences, important concepts, and practical steps and tools to take action, reach potential, and lead an authentic life free from regret.

 

Main image courtesy of iStockPhoto.com and Ildo Frazao