How to Handle Making Mistakes at Work
Making mistakes at work is something everyone does. How you handle the mistakes you make at work is what really matters. Doing what you can to prevent mistakes and certainly big mistakes is also important.
I would also argue that if you are not making some mistakes, you are limiting the speed of your learning or you are being too safe. Being successful in any business requires risks to be taken, which means mistakes will be made.
The steps in this article are to reduce the mistakes you make and to increase the speed of your learning.
I personally view how you learn as much as possible from your mistakes as the most important step so cultivate a growth mindset and you will approach handling making mistakes at work in a much more positive way.
6 ways for how to handle making mistakes at work:
- Take Immediate Responsibility
- Work Out the Root Causes
- Create a multi-pronged action plan
- Communicate with Stakeholders
- Seek Guidance and Support
- Cultivate a Growth Mindset
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As mentioned earlier, you will make mistakes at work. I have made lots and lots of mistakes in my career. I am covering what to do if you make a mistake at work. Firstly, when thinking about how to handle making mistakes at work, always
Take Immediate Responsibility
Admitting mistakes at work starts with your thinking and mental approach. Acknowledge to yourself that you have made a mistake and that it is your mistake. You have made a decision, taken an action or behaved in a certain way and it didn’t worked out well or as well as you needed.
Don’t unrealistically blame circumstances or others. These may have been contributing factors to why your decision, action or behaviour didn’t work.
The point of mentally accepting responsibility for the mistake is that:
- When asked you will admit to the mistake straight way
- You will take action to rectify your mistake
- You are more likely to learn from your mistake which I think is super important
All of these outcomes are very valuable to you personally and to your team and business.
“Should I admit to my mistakes at work?” is a question many people ask themselves. If you have made a mistake and you are asked about it, always admit to the mistake straight away. Say you are sorry and tell the person asking what you are doing to rectify the mistake.
Avoid defensiveness or trying to shift the blame. By trying to avoid blame, you damage the trust others have in you, which will become a much bigger problem for you personally over time.
Take immediate responsibility.
Secondly, when working out how to handle making mistakes at work, make the time to
Work Out the Root Causes of the Mistake
Working out why the mistake happened is really important for you and your professional growth. Reflect on your thinking process and your emotions leading up to the mistake being made. Making the time to do this helps:
- You take the right action to fix the immediate mistake
- You will learn as much as possible from the mistake
- Reduce the chances of this mistake happening again
Reducing your mistakes and the impact of those mistakes will improve your performance and enjoyment of being at work and reduce your stress and anxiety. All good things.
For example, I promoted the wrong person into a people management role. This person was good at many aspects of their job and supported me a lot personally. I had doubts about their ability to manage people but hoped my doubts would be proved wrong. It took me losing a team member they were managing before I accepted this person was causing more problems than they were solving. If I had taken action a year earlier, I would have been better off and more importantly, part of my team would have been much better off. I spent quite a bit of time reflecting on my mistake.
Always make time to work out the root causes of your mistake. Be as honest with yourself as possible and you will learn more.
Thirdly, when working out how to handle making mistakes at work, always
Create a multi-pronged action plan following the mistake
The action taken after making mistakes separates the good team members from the okay and poor team members.
As soon as you realise you have made a mistake, plan out the action you need to take to rectify the mistake. Taking action is how to get over making a mistake at work as quickly and as positively as possible.
If you can fix the mistake on your own, then fix it as quickly as possible. This gives you the option to tell people about the mistake or stay quiet about it. Make your decision based on the circumstances, the people involved and your work culture.
If you need the help or permission of others to take the action you need to rectify the mistake, then proactively admit to the mistake. Work out what the actions you would like to take before speaking to colleagues, stakeholders, or managers. Having a plan puts you in a much better light than just bringing a problem to others.
Go into enough detail when planning your action so that steps are clear to you and others, you have clear timeframes and the expected outcome of the action.
Don’t put this step off. The quicker you tackle the mistake made, the easier it is to take action and get the help needed. The longer you wait, the harder taking action becomes. Create a plan of action to rectify the mistake.
The second prong of your action plan should be to think about how to prevent this mistake happening again. Options include:
- Mentally remembering the signs leading up to this mistake so you can take preventative action quicker
- Changing or adding to processes to make this mistake less likely. For instance, adding in a review step.
- Creating a mini-training programme to teach others how to avoid this mistake
Always take action following a mistake. Taking action is one of the best ways for how to recover from mistakes at work
Fourth, when working out how to handle making mistakes at work, decide how to
Communicate with Stakeholders
When you have made a mistake at work that affects others, transparently sharing the mistake with your stakeholders or team members creates a number of benefits:
- You can get help rectifying the mistake or implementing the actions needed
- Give others the ability to plan or adjust their plans to minimise the impact of the mistake
- You build trust and demonstrate you are open and honest in how you work
By communicating with stakeholders, you reduce surprises, and you demonstrate accountability and a commitment to rectifying the mistake.
It is so much better if you are the one to tell others about a mistake made and suggest a plan to rectify it rather than them discovering the mistake and then asking you about it. You look a lot more professional while demonstrating you are a team player.
I personally communicate mistakes at work that have an impact on others as soon as I have a plan to rectify the mistake. I have found this to be the best approach and it definitely improves your reputation and the trust others have in you.
Fifth, when working out how to handle making mistakes at work, Seek Guidance and Support
if you are not sure how best to rectify the mistake.
I have had to ask for help lots of times after I made a mistake at work. Asking others for help or your boss for support in planning out how best to rectify the mistake usually leads to a better solution, a quicker solution and takes some of the pressure off you. All good things in my view.
I would create a plan first, even if you are not very confident of your plan, and then ask for help to improve it. This means you are bringing solutions with a problem rather than just bringing a problem.
There are lots of people you could ask for guidance and support:
- Your manager
- Your team
- Colleagues and experts within the business
- People in your network outside of work
- Mentors and coaches if you have these
- Anyone else that could sensibly help create solutions
I appreciate that in some business cultures showing weakness and asking for help can be detrimental to you. You will have to weight this up against the impact of your mistake and how you can rectify it.
Providing you don’t make lots of mistakes compared to your peers nor keep repeating the same mistake, I have found asking for guidance and support in resolving errors made a very positive experience. Don’t be scared of asking for help.
Sixth, when working out how to handle making mistakes at work, seek to
Cultivate a Growth Mindset
How you respond and handle making mistakes at work depends largely on your confidence and your mindset.
I view making mistakes as part of learning. Learning new skills and approaches usually needs some experimentation. Creating new and better solutions means trying new things. Not all of these will be successful, and you will make mistakes.
Treat each mistake as a learning opportunity and learn as much as you can. Reflect on what went wrong. Think through alternative routes or options that might have been more successful. Ask for help in creating even better options. Put one of those options into practice next time and compare to your current situation which resulted in the mistake at work. Keep repeating this plan, test and learn cycle until you get good results.
There are many saying along the lines of “mistakes are the stepping stones to success”. I have made many mistakes in my career, and I feel I have had a lot of success in my career. With every mistake, I have tried to learn as much as possible and of course tried hard not to repeat the same mistakes.
I have also tried to learn from mistakes that others made at work. This gives me valuable learning without the pain of actually making the mistake itself.
You will make mistakes. Don’t make the bigger mistake of not learning from your original mistake.
In summary
You will make mistakes at work. How to handle making mistakes at work is the key to making the best of the situation.
Be open and honest about mistakes you have made, and your will build trust and make getting help a lot easier. Both will help reduce the impact of the mistakes you do make.
Then, do your best to learn as much as you can from your mistake and try hard not to repeat it. In my view, this is a key part of becoming successful, no matter what you do.
As a reminder, we have been through these 6 steps in how to handle making mistakes at work:
- Take Immediate Responsibility
- Work Out the Root Causes
- Create a multi-pronged action plan
- Communicate with Stakeholders
- Seek Guidance and Support
- Cultivate a Growth Mindset
Everyone makes mistakes. I have made loads of them in my career. The most important thing is what you do when you make mistakes. Firstly learn as much as you can from making mistakes as this reduces the changes of making the same mistake again.
Making small mistakes that you can recover from is a lot better than making large mistakes that are very hard to recover from and a lot healthier for your career progress. Always be honest when you do make mistakes to keep trust in you high.
