• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

ZachEvans

Believer. Husband. Dad. Coach. Healthcare Thought-Leader. All-Around Good Guy.

  • Home
  • About
    • My Life’s To-Do List
    • Reading To My Kids
    • My Trip to England
    • My Trip to China
    • My Trip to Honduras
  • Thoughts
    • Healthcare
    • Leadership
    • Entrepreneurship
    • Technology
    • Family
    • Miscellany
  • Resources
    • Business
    • Youth Sports
    • Adoption
  • Projects
  • Contact

What to Do When You Mess Up

February 24, 2011 by Zach Evans

A recent article that I read offered up three somewhat trite examples of how to “impress people with how you handle it when you’ve given them a bad experience.” The author advised readers to:

  1. Throw a parade (What does being boring have to do with being wrong?)
  2. Great error pages (Online only, I guess.)
  3. Give a refund (Money doesn’t solve everything.)

While I may be less-than-impressed by the examples given, I can at least applaud the sentiment behind them: Taking responsibility.

Put another way: Own your messes.

A colleague recently submitted a request for some summary data from a project I was leading. I was in a hurry and responded with a spreadsheet we used on the project team to track the un-summarized data requested. While this response met the letter of the request it didn’t meet the spirit of the request.

Do you know what happened? My boss (who had been copied on the email thread as a courtesy) called me on it. My response? I agreed, followed-up with my colleague, made it right, and I’ll try to not make the same mistake again.

Could I have responded with a litany of excuses about how busy I am or how my colleague could have just as easily summarized the data? Sure, but I don’t think that’s how you demonstrate leadership to those around you. Also, you (usually) end up looking bad by making excuses.

Everyone makes mistakes from the entry-level analyst right up to the CEO. It’s going to happen and denying that fact just makes you look like someone who likes to put their head in the sand. The key to it all is how you respond when you mess up.

Own your messes.

Share this:

  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Google+ (Opens in new window)
  • Click to email this to a friend (Opens in new window)
  • Click to print (Opens in new window)

Related

Filed Under: Leadership Tagged With: Errors, Leadership, Mistakes, Responsibility

Primary Sidebar

Subscribe to Updates

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Recent Posts

  • Favorite Coach Sayings–Even If They’re Cliche
  • Adoption Facts & Statistics
  • Where Opportunity Meets Mission
  • Middle Tennessee Outlaws vs Grassland Rampage
  • Rethinking Support

Footer

Tags

Adoption Baseball Career Careers Change Charity China Coaching Communication Costs Drive Education EHR EMR Entrepreneurs Entrepreneurship Family Healthcare HIE IT Leadership LEGO LEGOs Lipscomb Management Margin Miscellany Motivation Nashville Networking Office Perfection Privacy Productivity Projects Resources Responsibility Spending Strategy Technology Training Travel Venture Capital Waffle House Work Week

Popular Thoughts

  • Baseball Coaching Resources

Latest Tweet

  • Three of my kids had the great fortune to play in @playgrassland basketball games referred by Mr. Terry. So thankfu… https://t.co/fYDCEL0ewk February 18, 2019 3:32 AM

Connect with Me

  • Facebook
  • Google+
  • LinkedIn
  • Twitter
  • Home
  • About
  • Resume
  • Thoughts
  • Projects
  • Resources
  • Contact

Copyright © 2010-2019 Zach Evans. All Rights Reserved. Built by E6 Advisors.

loading Cancel
Post was not sent - check your email addresses!
Email check failed, please try again
Sorry, your blog cannot share posts by email.