Oops, you've made a mistake, now what do you do? Your mistake could be anything from putting salt in a client's coffee to pressing the 'delete all' button or gumming up the photocopier with the wrong kind of labels. Or it could be a more spectacular clanger like misdirecting an embarrassing email or failing to proofread an important publication.
Unfortunately many of us are brought up to believe that making a mistake is shameful – that it's a sign of fundamental weakness. Because we feel so guilty, we don't find it easy to talk about the slip-up. However the truth is that everybody makes mistakes – they're an important part of our humanity. If you're not making mistakes you're not learning. Every successful person – if they're honest - will admit that they have made loads of mistakes on their way up the ladder. You are no different.
Action plan
Do:
Be up front – tell your line manager immediately
Come up with some suggestions of how the mistake might best be remedied
Enlist the help of whoever you need to solve the problem
Inform others who may also be affected by your error
Make notes on what you learned from your mistake – how to make sure it doesn't happen again.
Don't:
Hope the mistake will go away by itself
Try to cover it up
Blame someone else
Publicise your mistake far and wide – it's not necessary or advisable
Taking responsibility
When you own up to a slip-up you immediately feel better and you can get help putting things right. In addition, others will be impressed that you have not tried to hide your mistake or blame someone else. By saying sorry and acknowledging the seriousness of what you've done, they will know that you have learnt and that the same thing won't happen again.
Many companies are seeking to create a 'no blame' culture in which mistakes are tolerated - even encouraged. It's hoped that such an environment will make employees feel more like taking responsibility and taking risks. People are hardly going to be creative if they're constantly worried about cocking-up. Any mistakes can be discussed rationally and without reproach. This means that, although your future's a bit insecure if you've lost your company a contract worth £1 billion, lesser blunders can actually benefit your career.
Learning from your mistakes
The big advantage of admitting the mistake is that this helps you to learn, so that it won't happen again. To learn effectively, it helps to discuss what happened in some detail with a coach or mentor. Even if you don't have someone to talk to, you'll find it valuable to analyse the incident by asking yourself a number of questions:
What happened?
Why did it happen?
Has this mistake ever happened before? When?
What have I learned?
What would I do differently to prevent the same thing happening again?
What do I need to do or to learn now as a result of this event?
Reflecting on the incident in the longer term will help you to solve any underlying problems, deepen self awareness and identify your strengths. This can also point to areas in which you need to develop your skills or get
more experience.
Let go
You should not let mistakes knock your self esteeem because if you're not making them, you're not being innovative. It's not healthy to keep worrying about them either. So, having learned from them, let them go - and move on with confidence. Most importantly, don't let past mistakes make you over-cautious in the future. As James Joyce once wrote; 'Mistakes are the portals of discovery.'
