June 14th, 2026 by Mike Manazir – (4-5 minutes)
The next pass matters more than the last miss.
How do you build resilience in your team?
You let them face hard things. Then you teach them how to recover. I learned that lesson the hard way.
I had shut down my aircraft and climbed down the ladder when the instructor walked over.
“Hey,Manazir, the LSOs called from the ship. They said you were a disqual.”
I laughed. “They already told me I was a qual on the radio.”
He said, “They called back. It was a mistake. Every approach was out of limits.”
I had failed carrier qualification. I was stunned. Numb. Embarrassed. Fortunately, I had one chance to do it again. I went back, qualified, and became a better pilot.
That was strike one.
Strike two came on an obsidian dark night at sea. No moon. No stars. Just blackness and a tiny aircraft carrier waiting in the middle of nowhere. If you touch down past the wires with the hook down, it’s called a bolter. At night, the hook throws sparks as you scream off the deck.
Spectacular to watch. Painful for the pilot.
I missed the first four landings. Low on fuel, I went to the tanker, came back, and missed again.
After the seventh bolter, I asked AWOL, my backseater, “What are you thinking?” His answer came back: “EJECTION.” That snapped me out. I stopped thinking about the last seven passes and focused on the next one. We caught a wire. We stopped.
Strike three came twenty years later. After Nuke School, the carrier command selection board met. My boss, Vice Admiral Jim Zortman, was the president. I expected to be selected. I wasn’t.
I was devastated. I thought my career was over. It wasn’t. I was selected on the next round, which led to command of USS Nimitz and 8th Fleet.
Here’s the Truth: Failure feels final when you’re standing in it. But most of the time, it is a teacher. It shows where you are weak, what you need to learn, and whether you will step back in.
Resilience is not pretending failure doesn’t hurt. Resilience is absorbing the hit, learning the lesson, and swinging again. A baseball player can get out two out of three times and still make the Hall of Fame with a .300 average.
How Leaders Build Resilience
You build resilience through reps. Give people hard problems to solve. Train before pressure hits. Promote teamwork and honest communication. Help them adjust when the first approach doesn’t work. Teach them every issue is seeking a solution. Make failure a classroom, not a courtroom. Ask, “What did we learn?”
Lead to Win Principle
“Do not judge me by my success, judge me by how many times I fell down and got back up again.” — Nelson Mandela
The Question
When your team misses the wire—do you help them quit, or do you help them fly the next pass better?
Next Week: How to lead with emotional intelligence.
Want more powerful leadership lessons from Mike?
- Begin leading from the heart: Order Learn How to Lead to Win | The Manazir Maxims | Leadership Study Guide for Manazir Maxims
- Book Mike to Speak or for 1:1 Executive Coaching
P.S. Know someone trying to build up their people and lead with heart? Forward this to them. It might be the encouragement they need to keep going.
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Let’s lead to win together,
Mike Manazir
Retired Navy Rear Admiral | Bestselling Author | Keynote Speaker | Executive Coach