Coaching and Failure Stories: Reflection in Action with Dr. Adam Goodman

On this episode, Troost ILead's Albert Huynh speaks with Adam Goodman, Director of the Center for Leadership at Northwestern University about how the process of coaching and telling challenging or crucible stories about failure can help us reflect on and grow our leadership. He also shares one of his own crucible stories about how the Drupal Association, responsible for software that runs online content for Pfizer, Doctors Without Borders, City of LA, eBay, and many others almost went bankrupt. For context on the conversation,  some data about the engineering populations at the University of Toronto and Northwestern University should be kept in mind. There are roughly twice as many engineering students at U of T than at Northwestern, and although overall, they have comparable percentages of international students and women enrolled, at the undergraduate level, U of T has roughly twice the percentage of international students and three times the percentage of underrepresented ethno-cultural identities. We recognize that people experience failures and crucibles differently based on their backgrounds and the difference in makeup in these populations may affect how different students respond to, and take up these practices around failure. Consider how your own experiences shape how you see failure as we jump in. Let’s have a listen.