How To Treat Mistakes

How To Handle Mistakes

You’ve been going back and forth with a client about a project. You’re confused and peeved by her latest message because next steps are poorly communicated.

You forward the email to a co-worker on your team, writing that you’re frustrated, that what the client is saying doesn’t make sense, and that you’re at wit’s end.

You hit send.

Milliseconds later you realize you hit reply and not forward.

It’s my understanding that what you’d do next to treat your mistake is similar to how one ought to treat any mistake.

  1. Communicate immediately and apologize (hop on the phone to say sorry)
  2. Be vulnerable (admit to the client what you’re feeling and discuss a new way forward)
  3. Get energized for next steps (feel determined to tackle the project in whatever way you need regardless of what happened)

What trips up a lot of people is the third step. They make a mistake. Apologize. Open up. Then shut down. Instead, any mistake needs to be followed up with an insane desire to do better…and to get right to it.

 

Stay Positive & No Sulking, There’s Work To Be Done

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Garth Beyer
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