The 5 Best Actions After Messing Up At Work Or Making Mistakes At Work
Messing up at work or making mistakes at work happens to us all. I have made a ton of mistakes during my career. I have managed a lot of staff and they have all made mistakes without exception. Yes of course we all want to avoid messing up or making big mistakes at work. I doubt i will ever stop making mistakes. What i do hope it that the mistakes i do make get smaller and smaller, in terms of numbers but also impacts. I imagine you are the same.
What is really important is what we do after messing up at work or making a mistake at work. Some of the worst things you can do after messing up include:
- Ignoring the mistake and pretending it didn’t happen
- Blaming someone else for the mistake which makes it ten times worse when they find out it was you
- Staying silent when your mistake will damage other people’s work
- Giving a long list of excuses why you messed up
- Refusing to learn from your mistakes
The 5 Best Actions After Messing Up At Work Or Making Mistakes At Work
- Reduce the impact
- Be responsible
- Avoid making this mistake again
- Communicate quickly
- Cultivate a growth mindset
None of these will increase trust, your credibility or the success of the team around you. Keep making the same or similar mistakes and your job security could be threatened.
For you to increase the trust others have in you, to demonstrate how valuable a team member you are and to increase your career prospects.
The more you consciously work to avoid making mistakes at work, the less mistake you will make. Less mistakes or less big mistakes means better personal performance, and you become a more valuable team member.
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The first action after messing up at work is to reduce the impact
We are all going to make mistakes. Some of the best ways to make less mistakes at work include:
- Work in a way that reduces the chances of mistakes – such as listing out working or assumptions rather than just the final output
- Add in checks to your work so it makes it easier to spot mistakes. Using checklists can be very useful too.
- Review your work prior to finalising or sending to others
- Ask others to review your work prior to finalising (and you can offer the same to them)
Most businesses and bosses care about the impact of mistakes made on costs, on company profits, on reputations and how clients and customers might be affected. The smaller the impact of mistakes, the less concerned bosses and others will be, that the mistake was made in the first place.
When you do make a mistake, do what you can to reduce the impact of your mistake is a brilliant first step. If you can fix your mistake, preferably before anyone else notices – great.
Time is an important factor. The longer you or others have to fix mistakes, the better. Don’t procrastinate. Start working on fixing your mistake as quickly as practical.
If you need help to reduce the impact of your mistake, then get help as quickly as you can. The earlier you start reducing the impact of a mistake, the better for you, your team and anyone else relying on you.
be responsible – The second action after making mistakes
I personally always try to fix a mistake quickly and if I can’t do that, I will openly take responsibility for it. When you take responsibility, others are a lot more willing to help you fix any issues caused. The more help you get, the quicker mistakes can be rectified. I have tried most other approaches, and this has easily been the best one I have found.
Being responsible is about being honest with yourself. If you are in your head blaming others, making excuses to yourself or avoiding taking responsibility, you are ten times more likely to make the same mistake again. This does not help you.
Taking responsibility is also taking responsibility to fix the problems caused or provide a solution that will fix the mistake.
Taking responsibility for mistakes quickly and honestly actually reduces the anger and annoyance others might have towards you. More importantly, taking responsibility quickly builds a lot of trust with team members and bosses. You are a lot more likely to be given opportunities and important work if colleagues and bosses trust you to admit to mistakes quickly.
Trying to hide mistakes or push the blame onto others increases anger towards you and does a lot of damage to trust. Hiding mistakes also a lot more likely to magnify the problems those mistakes cause. This will come back to bite you hard at some point.
Always take responsibility quickly for mistakes.
avoid making this mistake again – The third action after messing up at work
Generally speaking, most people are reasonably forgiving when you make a mistake the first time round. Make the same or similar mistakes a second or third time and that forgiveness evaporates quickly.
Every time you make a mistake:
Reflect on what caused you to make that mistake. i.e. Rushing, trying to do to much, being distracted, not checking your work etc
Think about what you would change to make it really hard for you to make the same mistake again. I.e. Build in some checks or a checking process or ask others to check your work
Take action. Make the changes to avoid screwing up at work again in the same way. Taking action is the best way to stop making mistakes at work or reduce the impact of those mistakes.
Do your absolute best to avoid making the same or similar mistakes again.
4 – communicate quickly
Very few of us work in isolation. What we do and produce usually affects others. If we make a mistake, passing on work with mistakes can magnify the problems if others don’t spot the mistakes. A small issue can become a very big issue. I have seen it happen in pricing, in client proposals and in day to day work.
I always found it pretty scary to communicate my mistakes to others. I didn’t want colleagues and bosses thinking badly of me or labelling me as incompetent or thinking i am not good at my job. I quickly found out that not communicating quickly creates a lot more problems.
Communicating your mistakes takes courage.
Communicating quickly after making mistakes at work gives you:
- A lot more help to actually fix the mistake. This removes the problems quicker and with a lot less stress and hassle.
- Gives others more time to adjust their plans or renegotiate deadlines
- You give others fewer surprises, which in turn, makes you a lot more reliable to work with
- You build a lot more trust and demonstrate your commitment to teamwork
My general rule is when I make errors at work that impacts others and I can’t fix it quickly, I will communicate the mistake to others alongside what I am doing to fix that mistake. Don’t give other people your problems without providing a solution too.
Communicate quickly to recover from making mistakes at work.
The fifth action after messing up at work is to cultivate a growth mindset
Successful people have made more mistakes than everyone else. Very successful people learn from other people’s mistakes as well as their own. I have transitioned from a successful corporate career into running my own companies – twice. I have made a lot of mistakes. Those mistakes have taught me a lot. Making mistakes is a really important part of learning. I know from personal experience that success really is build on failure if you develop a learning mindset.
A learning mindset is taking every situation you can and reflecting on what you could have done differently or better and then trying that out the next time.
A learning mindset is picking apart everything you or others have done and finding what you can learn and improve from that situation.
Creating a learning mindset and constantly looking to learn and improve is not easy. The more you practice trying to learn, the better and quicker you get at learning. Get to the management ranks and being good at self-learning is part of the job description if you want to have a great career in management. Develop a learning mindset as quickly and as early as you can in your career. You will be a lot better off personally.
in summary
We all make mistakes at work. I have personally made a ton of mistakes and I am still making plenty of mistakes today. If you are not making mistakes, you are not learning nearly as quickly as you could.
What you do when you make mistakes is far more important to your success during your career, no matter where you are right now.
The 5 best actions after making mistakes at work or messing up at work are:
- Reduce the impact
- Be responsible
- Avoid making this mistake again
- Communicate quickly
- Cultivate a growth mindset
If you have any questions on “the 5 best actions after messing up at work or making mistakes at work”, please email me at support@enhance.training and I will get back to you.
I have made a ton of mistakes at work during my 25+ years in corporate jobs through to running my own business. As long as you work to minimise the impact, communicate quickly and learn from your mistakes, bosses and team members are usually understanding.
If you don’t communicate, don’t learn and don’t try to reduce the impact or worse try to pin it on someone else, that is when you get into real trouble.
Do your best to minimise the impact of your mistakes!
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