No matter how conscientious you are, you will make mistakes at work. Errors occur in every type of job and at every level of responsibility. If you don’t make mistakes, you aren’t learning.
Professionals acknowledge their mistakes, even though it may be difficult. When you make a small mistake, you can often correct it without involving anyone else. But if the mistake is costly or can damage the organization’s reputation, you have a responsibility to report it to your supervisor immediately.
When you make a mistake that falls into the “costly” category:
DO
• Take responsibility immediately.
• Tell your boss what happened.
• Apologize and explain what you think you can do to fix the mistake.
• Analyze why the mistake occurred and set in place a system to ensure the same type of mistake doesn’t happen again.
• Let it go and move on to other tasks.
Don’t
• Make excuses or become defensive. You’ll just annoy your boss and co-workers.
• Blame others, even if they played a part. Blaming others won’t solve the problem, and may make it worse.
• Deny your responsibility. Denial prolongs the problem and makes you look bad.
Taken from the Quick Skills book What Your Employer Expects by Career Solutions Publishing for Cengage Learning.
No comments:
Post a Comment