You Blew It... Now What?

Mistakes! We all make them. And as much as every good leader will tell you that mistakes are learning opportunities, you can watch even the most professional leaders head for the hills when things start to unravel.

We all want to create an environment where freethinking can breed innovation, but we get tripped up in our quest for accountability. This buzz around accountability is really our lack of tolerance for complacency. If we could lose our concern for accountability for even a moment, we might realize that encouraging and cultivating passion would leave us with the most genuinely engaged organization. You cannot be complacent and passionate. Anyway, enough on that.

So perhaps you took a risk. Maybe your overwhelming workload stress finally got the best of you and you missed something, skipped a step, left someone important out of the communication loop. It happens. So, how do you recover?  What can you do?

I’ve coached many a penitent professional through the ugly aftermath of a professional mistake. I know it isn’t easy to keep a brave face but you can get past most gaffes and (generally speaking) your reputation can recover too. Here are some tips for cleaning up a mess.

Show Humility

Humility isn’t weakness. In fact, I think it takes more guts to humble yourself than it does to defend yourself. Let me be clear, humbling yourself doesn’t mean groveling or articulating self-doubt. Humility requires you acknowledge the error, take responsibility and express that you regret that it happened the way it did.

Demonstrate Your Concern

Trying to minimize your concern for the error by describing why it isn’t really so bad or why it may actually have some silver lining is a big mistake. You can, however, talk through a perspective that might include vocabulary like “damage control” or “minimizing the impact”.

Respond Sooner Rather Than Later

The best way to demonstrate genuine concern is to respond quickly. Not in a rash or overly reactive way, but you should be deliberate and timely. Waiting too long starts to look like another mistake. We can all identify celebrities and politicians who chose to remain silent when issues escalate. The lack of response can draw increased attention. 

Explain, Don’t Defend

Offering an explanation or back story is important. It shows that you are plugged in and know how the problem happened. You don’t want to seem like you have no control or idea what is going on. Feigning disbelief or outrage will only make the situation worse. If you have a set of assumptions that you still feel you need to articulate, then share them. Don’t be pigheaded about your position, and don’t deny that the outcome is less than favorable. A thoughtful error in judgement is better than a careless error, but sometime careless errors happen and a sincere apology is all you can offer as explanation.

Always Offer Bulletproof Problem Solving

Offer a concise description of how you will ensure that a similar error will never happen again. Include safeguards and express them with confidence. Offer this shift only after you have taken responsibility and expressed your concern. If you move too quickly to problem solving, it can seem like you are trying to avoid taking responsibility.

Forgive Yourself

Don’t beat yourself up. This will not be your last mistake, be focused and be deliberate! Don’t allow your errors to make you reluctant or cautious. Use your experience to develop your tolerance and empathy for others who make mistakes in the future; and be a role model for grace under pressure.

In the words of entrepreneur Darren Hardy; “ Doubt and fear steal more dreams than failure does”.

image credit: hereisthecity.com