How To Handle Your Mistakes

Of course, mistakes are important. Two facts put those mistakes along the career path in perspective. One, everyone makes mistakes. Two, that you make mistakes is not nearly as important as what you do about them.

Job Tip: The way you follow up on the errors you make has a greater impact on the future of your career than what you did or didn’t do wrong.

That dose of career advice is hard to remember when you are wallowing in the bed of regret, second-guessing and even being eaten alive by fear that usually follows on the heels of a mistake.

It is worthwhile to restate the axiom that everyone who is out there making an effort to get things done makes mistakes.

Carly Fiorini refused to delegate authority and tone down her style while she traipsed around the world like a jet-set celebrity. She made the mistake of defying her board of directors when they asked her to change her ways and she got booted out as CEO of Hewlett-Packard.

Kodak lost its market dominance when it failed to anticipate the success of Polaroid. It has yet to regain its position.

Coca-Cola made a major miscalculation when it decided the world needed a new flavor of its favorite beverage. When the market said, “You made a mistake” the company quickly turned its back on “New Coke.” Ford Motor Company pulled off a “Lulu” by producing a dud, the Edsel automobile. It lost no time in dumping the mistake when buyers turned thumbs down.

So, mistakes are bound to occur, even among the best of us.

Turn Mistakes Into Learning Experiences

Job Tip: Smart careerists learn early in the race to capitalize on mistakes by turning them into learning experiences.

When he was chairman of Quaker Oats Company, William Smithburg declared, “There isn’t one senior manager in this company who hasn’t been associated with a product that failed, or some project that failed. That includes me. It’s like learning to ski. If you’re not falling down, you’re not learning.”

Career Advice:

The next time you make a mistake, keep in mind the following nine steps that achievers take when they goof up.

1. Don’t panic. Follow the admonition of the television commercial, “Never Let Them See You Sweat.”
2. Stop long enough to clear your head. Then act pronto.
3. Get the facts so you can define the mistake.
4. Answer these questions. What is the worst thing that can happen? The best outcome? Will the mistake really make any difference one week, one year, five years later?
5. Report the mistake to the boss immediately. It is far better for you to tell him about your mistake than to have it come from others. Help the boss keep it in perspective. A Confucian proverb advises, “Be not ashamed of mistakes and thus make them crimes.”  Let the boss and your colleagues know you regret the error. Nothing is likely to infuriate your supervisor and colleagues more than your appearing not to care when you make a mistake.
6. Accept the responsibility for your mistakes.
7. Feel the pain and mourn a little, but for only a little while. You will feel better later.
8. Perform a post-mortem. Look again the facts. How can a repeat performance be avoided? What did you learn from the experience?
9. Forget the mistake; give it a decent burial, but remember the lessons learned.

Job Tip: The only truly unforgivable mistake is to repeat a mistake.