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7 Steps to Bounce Back from a Work Mistake

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7 STEPS TO BOUNCE BACK FROM A WORK MISTAKE

Everyone is error prone, even at work. Experts say handling your mistake
effectively can go a long way toward building trust and growing professionally. 


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 2. This Week In Leadership

FOR MORE EXPERT INSIGHTS

Val Olson

Career & Leadership Coach, Korn Ferry Advance

Frances Weir

Associate Principal, Advisory

Kevin Cashman

Global Co-Leader, CEO & Enterprise Leader Development

Tiffinee Swanson

Career & Leadership Coach, Senior Consultant

Deleting a presentation. Sending a typo-filled email to a client. Signing off on
a strategy that failed. Work blunders are outrageously common. According to one
2021 study, employees make, on average, more than 100 mistakes at work per
year. 

Most errors can’t be absolved with a simple, “Oops, my bad,” either. (Try saying
that to the boss after not showing up at an important meeting with
customers.) Managed poorly, work errors can erode trust between the
mistake-makers and their colleagues, bosses, and customers. 

Still, individual mistakes are not career killers. In most cases, there’s a good
chance a worker can bounce back, and even strengthen their work ties. “Making a
mistake can allow you to self-reflect, pay greater attention to your work, and
expand your awareness,” says Val Olson, a career coach at Korn Ferry
Advance. Here’s what to do after making a mistake at work. 

Communicate quickly.

Don’t try to cover up an error, experts say. It’s far better to highlight a
mistake than to have the boss find out about it later, says Frances Weir, a
career coach for Korn Ferry Advance. Tell whoever was affected by the mistake
that you are addressing it. If you can’t fix it yourself, loop in colleagues who
can help. Then let everyone know when the mistake is rectified. For leaders,
talking about your mistake—and showing vulnerability—also can make you more
relatable to your direct reports. 

Apologize.

Whether the mistake was yours alone or your team’s, tell people you’re sorry
that it’s causing problems or hassles for others. Don’t be defensive or make
your apology about yourself, either. People care much more about the impact of
the error—and how you will address it—than they do your intent.

Get to the bottom of the error.

Too much multitasking? Miscommunication with a colleague? Plain old
forgetfulness? Once you’ve discovered the error, figure out how it was
made. “Taking ownership is part of the job,” Weir says. Being
proactive demonstrates your awareness of the problem and relieves others from
the potential discomfort of bringing it to your attention.

Look on the bright side.

Depending on the mistake, you can easily become panicky or depressed. It’s OK to
be upset, or even angry at yourself, but experts say it’s essential that you
avoid falling into despondency. While it may sound cliché, mistakes often are
teachable moments. “Instead of bouncing back from mistakes, dive into
them,” says Kevin Cashman, Korn Ferry’s global co-leader of CEO and enterprise
leader development. 

Dissecting how a mistake was made allows you to look at different, and
potentially more innovative, ways to avoid making others in the future. Fixing a
mistake often gives you the chance either to learn or show off your agility and
creative problem-solving skills. “Resolving a mistake can be very satisfying,
even though making it wasn’t,” Olson says.

Be self-reflective.

Once the mistake has been handled, take some time to figure out what you can use
from this experience. Perhaps the mistake highlights how you were skipping a
seemingly irrelevant but clearly essential step in a process. Maybe the error
revealed something you’d never even thought of before. In any case, write down
what should be changed and, more importantly, incorporate that change into your
work routine. “This type of thinking can help boost your resilience for the
future,” says Tiffinee Swanson, a Korn Ferry Advance career coach. 

Show others you’ve grown.

After a mistake, your negatives will often outweigh your positives in the minds
of others. So, it’s critical to take action and be transparent about it. “Share
back with your manager, customer, and peers what strategies and tactics you have
been implementing to prevent the same mistake from happening in the future and
build back any lost trust,” Swanson says.

Acknowledge that you’ll make another mistake.

Fixing one thing will not prevent you from committing an error somewhere else,
experts emphasize. No one is infallible and admitting that can help you avoid
despondency when you make another mistake.

At the same time, making mistakes is often part of a healthy creative process.
Innovating can be the equivalent of throwing spaghetti at the wall and seeing if
it sticks. “A lot of noodles will fall to the ground,” Olson says.

 

Learn more about Korn Ferry’s career-guidance capabilities from Korn Ferry
Advance. 

Read more This Week in Leadership articles

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