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"The fastest way to succeed," IBM's Thomas Watson, Sr., once said, "is to double your failure rate." In recent years, more and more executives have embraced Watson's point of view, coming to understand what innovators have always known: Failure is a prerequisite to invention. Although companies may grasp the value of making mistakes at the level of corporate practices, they have a harder time accepting the idea at the personal level. In this article, psychologist and former Harvard Business School professor Richard Farson and co-author Ralph Keyes discuss how companies can reduce the fear of miscues. What's crucial is the presence of failure-tolerant leaders--executives who, through their words and actions, help employees overcome their anxieties about making mistakes and, in the process, create a culture of intelligent risk-taking that leads to sustained innovation. Drawing from their research in business, politics, sports, and science, the authors identify common practices among failure-tolerant leaders. These leaders break down the social and bureaucratic barriers that separate them from their followers. They engage at a personal level with the people they lead. They take a nonjudgmental, analytical posture as they interact with staff. They openly admit their own mistakes. And they try to root out the destructive competitiveness built into most organizations. Above all else, failure-tolerant leaders push people to see beyond traditional definitions of success and failure. They know that as long as a person views failure as the opposite of success, rather than its complement, he or she will never be able to take the risks necessary for innovation.

Beliefs in the value of praise as a motivational tool, a reward, and a way to establish good relationships are inaccurate. Although praise may be a useful technique to keep human relationships on an even keel, it is questionable that praise serves as a motivational tool. To develop qualities of initiative, creativity, judgment, and problem-solving ability, dependence on "internal motivation" is necessary. By being honest about both positive and negative feelings and being empathetic and nonevaluative, listeners help establish a free, accepting, yet close relationship that will encourage independent judgment, effective decisions, and creative actions.