Mastering the Art Of 'Failing Up' At Work

"People with a mysterious talent for advancement exist in almost every company. They have fancy titles and, their co-workers suspect, paychecks to match.

And they do . . . what, exactly?

Some get ahead by brown-nosing. Some ride colleagues' coattails. Others play a mean game of golf, get the last word on Zoom calls or turn on so much charm that their vapidity and miscues don't register.

Office gripes about colleagues who fail their way up the corporate ladder aren't new, but we sure are noticing them anew as offices reopen and those back-slappers return to form.

Many who shine brightest when schmoozing struggled with the pandemic era's focus on remote productivity. Now they're eager to flash smiles and shake hands once again as co-workers roll their eyes (with no small measure of envy).

"For the rest of us, failing is a sign that you're not good at something," says Tessa West, an associate professor of psychology at New York University and author of "Jerks at Work." "They actually manage to turn their failure into success, which is some serious magic."

Masters of failing up work their "magic" by framing mistakes as moments of growth, she says, and in so doing convince executives to boost them ever higher.

Anthony Pratt says he has perfected this art form.

"I love to fail upward and use every failure as a way to develop or grow," he wrote on LinkedIn recently.

Intrigued and a bit jealous, I called him for details.

Mr. Pratt, 37, told me he's a weak writer, which can detract from the proposals he creates as a landscape architect and transportation designer at a large firm in Denver.

He says he doesn't always get the numbers right, either.

A recent project he oversaw cost more than expected, irritating both the client and his boss, but Mr. Pratt says he salvaged the situation by being honest about the overrun.

He recalls the conversation with his manager going like this: "They were, like, 'How are we going to make up these dollars?' I said, 'We're going to make it up on the next project. We're going to keep getting work with this client because we were up front.' "

The customer stuck with his firm for future work, and Mr. Pratt continues to lead teams -- taking on more duties and becoming a mentor after two years at the company.

Co-workers may have seen Mr. Pratt bust a budget; they likely didn't see him save an account through savvy client relations. No one is perfect, and minimizing the damage of inevitable errors is a useful talent in business.

A certain kind of failure is a badge of honor in Silicon Valley and other startup hubs. For example, it's trendy for serial entrepreneurs to boast about how much cash they burned on previous ventures, as if investors' willingness to offer a second (or third) chance after a spectacular failure is the ultimate proof of genius.

Not everyone can spin a botch job into a better job, and rare is the mere mortal climbing the corporate ladder who will admit a promotion or raise is unearned. Dr. West says managers may subconsciously cut more slack to people who remind them of themselves, and since the upper echelon of corporate America is disproportionately white and male, it often helps to be one or both of those things, though the effect can hold for women and minorities.

There is another side to the story. People sometimes validate the trust placed in them after winning jobs they may not deserve. Some of the most visible examples are in sports.

Kliff Kingsbury was widely perceived by pundits and fans as failing up after his alma mater, Texas Tech, fired him as head football coach in 2018, following a losing record over six seasons. Months later, he vaulted to head coach of the NFL's Arizona Cardinals. Surprising many critics, Mr. Kingsbury has led the Cardinals from last place to the playoffs in three seasons and recently signed a contract extension.

Observers can shake their fists -- or learn something.

Ken Kao says that if he had his way, talent and hard work would be enough to rise. The California software engineer isn't, as he puts it, "one of those guys who knows how to talk about football and grab a bourbon with company leadership."

Yet talking about the big game and knocking back a few is exactly how some people who get ahead seem to do it, in his view. In those cases, he suspects, business acumen matters less than a popularity factor that feels more like high school than the working world.

Despite his distaste, Mr. Kao says he can't help but borrow some of their tactics because they seem to work. For instance, he says he tries to project at least as much swagger in meetings with senior managers as the people he considers less competent.

"I've adopted a much more assertive style," says Mr. Kao, 32, who manages about 50 people in his current role.

Truly terrible workers sometimes get their comeuppance. Yet mediocrity is often enough to keep progressing -- especially for people with powerful allies.

William Weiss, now retired in Arizona after a long career with a major telecommunications company, adds that underachievers are often protected by the egos of supervisors who hate to admit to picking the wrong people.

So, they keep their ample paychecks and shuffle into new roles -- often with vague titles and few meaningful tasks, so they can't cause too much harm.

"The bigger the organization is, the more room you have to move around and fail," says Mr. Weiss, 79. "The person who put you in the job, rather than confront you, will simply pass you off to someone else."" [1]

1. On The Clock: Mastering the Art Of 'Failing Up' At Work
Borchers, Callum. 
Wall Street Journal, Eastern edition; New York, N.Y. [New York, N.Y]. 05 May 2022: A.12.