How Can You Learn From Mistakes at Work? Part One
No one could reasonably argue that you should never make mistakes at work. It’s an ideal that is simply impossible to achieve. Literally every employee, from the lowest rung to the highest, has made a mistake. Some can be huge and impossible to come back from, but a vast majority are simple to rectify and can even make you better at your job if you take the experience on properly. So how do you learn from mistakes at work? Ultimately, the type of mistake you make may define you, but how you come back from it will be how you are remembered.
Another thing about making mistakes – denying that they have happened usually exacerbates and magnifies an already awkward situation because chances are, you aren’t fooling anyone and you appear insincere.
So if a mistake has been made, the very first thing to do is own it, admit it, and take responsibility. Swallow your pride, your embarrassment, and maybe your fear and confess to your manager as soon as you realise what has happened. The sooner a mistake is admitted, the sooner it can be remedied. The situation only gets worse if you wait to deal with it.
Whatever the (perhaps legitimate) reason is, even if you couldn’t have avoided making the mistake, don’t try to make excuses. Sometimes life gets in the way and things happen that are unavoidable. But whatever you do, don’t offer these excuses to explain away the mistake. Even valid excuses will make it seem like you are trying to avoid the blame. Your boss just wants to know what you are going to do to fix the problem. So get over it, take full responsibility and work on solving the problem. It’s a familiar scenario: While it’s easy (and probably satisfying) to point your finger and say, “Not my fault!” the truth is, if it happened on your watch and you are accountable for the finished product, you ultimately share the blame in the client’s eyes. In this situation, get to the bottom of what happened and focus on what you and your company can do on your end to prevent the situation from reoccurring.
Next, knowing why you made the mistake is key in learning from it. Pinpointing the cause will also help you avoid repeating it next time. Determine the specific (or lack of) action that led to the mistake. Figure out what triggered the series of missteps. Take the time to look into the events and if there are things that need to be improved, take some time to work on them. Make the necessary changes, to see the positive results.
Now, do whatever you can to fix the mistake. Stay late to finish a project, call or email the affected people to alert them of the mistake and let them know what steps are being taken to correct it, stop the problem from spreading and do everything you can to make sure this kind of mistake doesn’t happen again.
For goodness’ sake, don’t beat yourself up more than the situation necessitates. You are not expected to be perfect except by yourself. In the introduction of this post above, I wrote ‘The kind of mistakes you make define you.’ That can be better defined as ‘The way you handle and overcome your mistakes defines you.’ With every mistake that you make, you discover more about yourself, who you are, your limits, your capabilities, and what you can and cannot do.
But, even if you do everything you can to be forthright, apologetic and to fix the damage, you need to prepare for the consequences. This may include being fired or having to rebuild trust with your boss and or colleagues. Learn from mistakes, be patient and continue to work hard.
Making mistakes makes you understand that you are not perfect. And perfection doesn’t exist, really – only your intentions of doing your best. Perfection leaves no room for improvement. It’s the mistakes that give you room for improvement, room for growth. Know that the lessons you will learn and master out of all the mistakes you make along your way through life are most important.
In Part Two, we’ll look at ways to rebuild trust, your reputation, and how to learn from mistakes to actually benefit you in the long term.
