Making a professional mistake at work can wound your well-being and confidence, if you let it. You could lose your job. By a professional mistake, I mean a technical error or leadership fault that resulted in a significant and maybe even a material problem for the company, like accidentally approving a multi-million-dollar purchase without the proper authority. Or, deleting the entire Accounts Receivable file in the system.
I can’t begin to cover the possibilities of criminal behavior in this discussion. If you commit a criminal act in your professional capacity, then you have a bunch of other problems to sort out. This post is not about criminal acts or the mistreatment of others. Seek help, accept responsibility and make restitution.
A single professional mistake should not define us. After the error has been corrected, you must find the inner strength to mentally overcome it. We will vow to be more diligent in our duties, and, then, we move on. We don’t dwell on the error. If we do dwell, it will wreck our confidence.
“We are products of our past, but we don’t have to be prisoners of it.” – Rick Warren, author
Recovering from an Unintentional Professional Mistake
Overcome the mental aspect of what happened
- You must dig deep inside you to find the strength to look at yourself and forgive your action. You are not perfect. No one is.
- Do not dwell. Focus on correcting how it happened and move on. You have a team to lead, and leaders don’t get stuck in the past.
Admit and correct the error
- We make no excuses.
- As soon as you realize the error occurred, find the strength to get up and the tell the right people to get it fixed.
Develop a mechanism to not do it again
- How did you make the error? Was it an oversight? Is there an internal control missing? Did you hurry a task? Was it an integrity failure?
- Determine what contributed to the mistake and create a technique to not make the mistake again? Do you need a reminder? Update the manual or checklist?
Create a teaching moment for your team
- Use the mistake to talk about integrity and that correcting the mistake right away is the proper course of action.
- We teach that making excuses or blaming others does not solve the problem.
Everyone makes mistakes. Admitting the mistake may lose the job you have, especially if it was material, but your professional reputation is more important. Ensure we correct the mistake and move on mentally. Lead with integrity always.
How have you handled a professional mistake in the past, and what did you learn about yourself?
Please comment or email me at comment@stephenmclain.com.
Copyright 2019 – Stephen McLain
