How to make mistakes
February 2, 2001
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Everyone in every job and every life makes mistakes. There is no way to avoid them. However, the success of your career can ride on how you handle your mistakes and how you recover from them. Below are a few guidelines on how to handle your mistakes to insure that one small problem doesn't turn into a job or career ending monster.
Cover-up
The single worst thing you can do when you make a mistake is to attempt
to hide it. No one is smart enough to hide their mistakes from everyone.
In fact, the simple act of trying to hide your mistakes will expose you
to even greater backlash or punishment than had you admitted the mistake
up front. People will forgive mistakes, but they find it very hard to
forgive someone who has tried to hide their mistakes. They will often
take greater offense at the cover-up than the actual mistake.
This doesn't mean you have to trumpet your mistakes from the mountaintop,
though. While your supervisor or manager should know about a mistake there
is no need to include other staff members if the problem doesn't effect
them directly.
Fix it
Once you realize you have made a mistake, it is up to you to develop solutions
to get the situation under control. When you bring the problem to the
attention of your manager, make sure you bring as many solutions as possible.
This helps your manager to see that you recognize the mistake and are
already thinking about how to fix it. Once again, by showing your understanding
of the mistake you are showing that you are still a useful and competent
employee.
Don't just dump the problem into your manager's lap. Be clear that you
will do the necessary work to solve the problem and are only looking for
your manager's advice and approval. Sure, there will be times you are
stymied for a response to the problem, but you should work together with
your manager and not expect them to handle it on their own.
Who's to blame?
Avoid blaming other people at all costs. In a high-tech career you will
often face companies that over-estimate the usefulness of their products;
companies that stop producing the product you just recommended to the
entire corporation; or products that have fatal flaws. You might like
to rest all the blame on these companies, but it really doesn't matter.
The end user, your manager, your co-workers don't care who caused the
problem, only what you are going to do to solve it. I can guarantee you
that sometime in your career some vendor will make you look stupid. Your
only choice is to find another product or service and move on. Blaming
the company might make you feel better, but it does nothing for your career.
If blaming a company is bad, blaming an individual can be virtual career
suicide. It doesn't matter how bad someone else has screwed up, if you
try to put the blame on them your reputation with both staff and management
could suffer greatly. Again, your first response should be to solve the
problem, not toss around blame. Sure, you will want to talk with your
manager about how the issue arose, but don't stand around trashing the
person with your co-workers. They will only begin to wonder if you will
do the same thing to them if they make a mistake. Your management might
also see it as a sign, rightly or wrongly, that you are not willing to
take responsibility for your own mistakes and always seek to place the
blame elsewhere. In either case you are digging a very deep career hole.
The single most important advice when facing a mistake, by yourself or
others, is SOLVE IT! It is always better to face a mistake head-on, even
if it isn't the easiest path to take. It matters little who created the
problem if you are already working to make it better. Trying to cover
up a mistake or blame someone else for the problem makes you seem petty
and untrustworthy. We all want to hide our mistakes, but it is how you
deal with them that raises or lowers other people's respect in your work.
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