Owning Up to Your Mistakes & Work

No, no, no, no, no! I screamed at my computer in shock. I didn’t want to believe it, but there it was glaring at me in blue light. A huge, costly mistake.

And I cried.

More accurately, I sobbed. But not at first. Yes, I was emotional but I knew that I needed to handle this mistake as best I could. I sat down, recalculated and ironed out the steps to resolving my mistake. I figured out what went wrong and fixed it before addressing it with my supervisor. Once everything was in order, I reached out to my boss and let him know what happened. I outlined the mistake, how it happened and how to fix it. I then sent him the revised presentation.

And then I cried. I sobbed for nearly two hours after the fact. I couldn’t get the thoughts of being fired or having my job in jeopardy out of my mind. Jake did his best to comfort me but I was so upset. I was upset for days.

And then the funniest thing happened. My boss approved the new presentation, I sent the explanation back to the client and they accepted it. Nothing drastic happened. Barely anyone else noticed. It was as if that mistake never happened.

And I can’t help but think that was because of the way I handled it. If I had denied it, made my boss fix it, or tried to cover it up, it would have lasted longer, more leadership members would have been brought in and I would’ve had to lie to justify my actions. But instead, I faced my mistake head on. I took the steps needed to fix it before bringing anyone else into the situation. I used honesty and integrity, which meant I didn’t need to justify my actions. I was humble. I admitted my mistake and took ownership of it. And just as quickly as the mistake came, it was gone.

Mistakes happen, especially at work. They’re nearly unavoidable because we’re imperfectly human. When mistakes happen, don’t make the wound worse. Clean it up, fix it, take ownership and soon enough, it will heal.