Over the past few years, I have been fortunate to work for a great boss. I have learned many lessons from him about business and how to manage people, over the coming weeks I will be writing about some of those lessons.
One of the first lessons I learned revolved around how to look at mistakes in the workplace. It was within my first couple months at the job, and I had just made a mistake. I cannot recall if he pointed it out or if I caught it myself, but either way I messed up. I remember working through the issue with him, and at the end he said, “If you’re not making mistakes, you aren’t doing anything.” He went onto explain that because I made a mistake he knew I was working and trying new things.
I drew some conclusions from this. The first is that making mistakes will happen if you are trying to do well at your job. You are going to miss something at some point and that is OK. It’s how you respond to that mistake that matters. Of course the best way to respond to a mistake is to not let it happen again. Repeating the same mistake over and over means you are not learning from your own failures. Which at the very least will stunt your career, but more than likely it will get you fired.
The second conclusion was that my manager’s response to my mistake encouraged my initiative. My boss could have done any number of things in this situation. In fact, I was expecting some sort of reprimand. Instead I was met with a short discussion on what should have happened and we moved on. This encouraged my initiative because I knew going forward that my mistakes, though not celebrated, were to be seen as an opportunity to get better.
This interaction has stuck with me, especially as new employees have come on board and I have had to train them. My initial gut response to a mistake can be Rick Pitino’s reaction when one of his guys misses a defensive assignment (for those not versed in basketball it usually involves a lot of yelling). But I have learned to quiet this response, and instead treat my coworker’s mistakes like mine were treated. I have seen the same result in them. My yelling would most definitely not produce positive results, but working through mistakes encourages them to keep getting better, and most importantly encourages them to take the initiative.
Now some of you may be thinking, but I never make mistakes! If this is you then you are 1 of 3 options: The first is that you are the best employee ever. The second is that you never do any work. The third option is that you are so afraid of messing up that you stick to the same old routine and just try to get by. Odds are you are not the first option. Don’t let fear of messing up stunt your initiative. Treat your mistakes as learning opportunities, and, if you are a manager, treat your employees mistakes in a way that makes them better.
Worth the While 