It’s common knowledge that our latest England manager has lost his job, after he was filmed offering advice on how to ‘get around’ rules on player transfers. Given his unreserved excitement at having finally secured his dream role, and to lose it again after one game in charge; we can only imagine how he must be feeling.

For a person to make such a significant error in judgement, that potentially marks the end of their chosen career; well, you’d have to work hard to come back from that.

Then I saw this tweet by former England striker Gary Lineker who said “Sam Allardyce has lost his job as England manager. No one though, will ever beat his game winning percentage.”

Class! What a fabulous way to emphasise the hopeful side of a situation; one that on the face of it looks gloomy, to say the least!

It’s also worth remembering that failure ultimately shapes us as a leader. Whilst we’d rather not make the kind of blunder Allardyce has, it is the most powerful source of clarity and understanding. It strengthens our character and teaches us how to reinvent ourselves, as well as the organisation we are leading.

You wouldn’t want to make too many gaffes though. As a rule of thumb in business I accept that everyone makes mistakes and I’ll support team members to ‘course correct’. What I find less palatable is someone making the same mistake twice. That implies a lack of ownership in doing the right thing, and gives the impression, that the individual isn’t as focused as they could be on the task at hand.

Remember, every cloud has a silver lining, which means that even the worst events or situations have some positive aspect. So, when you mess up, recognise it; own the mistake; put things in place to prevent it happening again and move on – stronger, wiser and better for the experience.