A lot of us on this forum have at one time or another made mistakes when it comes to running our businesses. I'm still doing it. Some have been big and some have been small but I like to look at all of them as an opportunity to learn and grow. I don't believe anyone can run a business without making some miscues.
The questions is what do you do after you realized that you have made a mistake?
I try to pull up and think about what I have done and why it didn't work, and try to figure out how to avoid making that mistake in the future. I tend not to beat myself up or cry over it. Neither of which have ever done me any good. If it effects others, I admit the mistake with the same amount of energy and voice as when I acknowledge an accomplishment. I try not to make excuses or minimize what I have done - I simply say it is my fault and try to move forward. I learned this playing basketball:
We would be on the court, in the middle of a heated game and I made a bad pass that resulted in a turnover and points being scored. I was so busy kicking myself that I didn't notice that my teams were still playing a game, but they were outnumbered 4 to 5 players. It resulted in the opposing team scoring twice before we scored again. Our coach quickly called a timeout and as I stomped off the court towards the bench he met me halfway.
"You mistake caused us 2 points, your stressing about it caused us 2 more. Everyone makes a mistake, the measure of a true champion is whether he or she lets that mistake cripple them - ultimately costing them the game. You're going to make mistakes, how you recover is going to say more about you than anything else," he said to me.
That day I learned that mistakes happen, beating yourself up over that mistake does more harm than admitting it and moving on.
We are going to make mistakes as business owners, how long we spend thinking about it and trying to not let anyone see that we are human only takes away from precious time we can be helping our businesses move forward. I don't fire people for making mistakes or even write them up - I have found that most times a person will be motivated not to make that same mistake again. And employees trying to hide things always cost a business more than if they simply came forward and let you know what happened. I may be making a mistake handling it this way but it seems to work for now.
How do you handle mistakes?
The questions is what do you do after you realized that you have made a mistake?
I try to pull up and think about what I have done and why it didn't work, and try to figure out how to avoid making that mistake in the future. I tend not to beat myself up or cry over it. Neither of which have ever done me any good. If it effects others, I admit the mistake with the same amount of energy and voice as when I acknowledge an accomplishment. I try not to make excuses or minimize what I have done - I simply say it is my fault and try to move forward. I learned this playing basketball:
We would be on the court, in the middle of a heated game and I made a bad pass that resulted in a turnover and points being scored. I was so busy kicking myself that I didn't notice that my teams were still playing a game, but they were outnumbered 4 to 5 players. It resulted in the opposing team scoring twice before we scored again. Our coach quickly called a timeout and as I stomped off the court towards the bench he met me halfway.
"You mistake caused us 2 points, your stressing about it caused us 2 more. Everyone makes a mistake, the measure of a true champion is whether he or she lets that mistake cripple them - ultimately costing them the game. You're going to make mistakes, how you recover is going to say more about you than anything else," he said to me.
That day I learned that mistakes happen, beating yourself up over that mistake does more harm than admitting it and moving on.
We are going to make mistakes as business owners, how long we spend thinking about it and trying to not let anyone see that we are human only takes away from precious time we can be helping our businesses move forward. I don't fire people for making mistakes or even write them up - I have found that most times a person will be motivated not to make that same mistake again. And employees trying to hide things always cost a business more than if they simply came forward and let you know what happened. I may be making a mistake handling it this way but it seems to work for now.
How do you handle mistakes?
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