You would think that failure in the workplace is normally a bad thing, however I completely disagree. In my mind, failures and mistakes create a positive process, allowing you to eliminate methods that don’t work in order to come closer to the ideas that can really help your business flourish. Failures are in fact a vital part of success as they enable you to cross ideas off your list so that you can really refine and hone your company processes.
It’s important not to dwell on mistakes. A negativity bias means that we tend to focus on what we do wrong instead of what we do right, however mistakes demonstrate that we are adventurous in business; that we are prepared to try new ideas and innovations and push ourselves out of our comfort and knowledge zones in a bid to succeed. Mistakes encourage an organic learning and developing process, both personally and professionally, that you can completely utilise and use to your advantage. At Total Assist Group. we’ve had our fair shares of up and downs, but we take every mistake on the chin and use it as our own learning curve to ensure we are as successful as possible.
Dealing with mistakes
1) Make the mistake work for you – Don’t try and brush your mistakes under the carpet to try and forget about them, but instead pay attention. Invest your time and energy into correcting them so that you fully understand and appreciate what happened and what needs to be done to resolve the situation. Whatever mistakes have been made, they always need to be fixed.
2) Have a ‘wake up call’ – If you make a genuine error, take accountability and own up to it. Backtrack to try and identify what the root problem was so that you can adapt future strategies to avoid this potential pitfall. Don’t be resistant to change and keep your mind open to new possibilities.
3) Plan ahead – Once you have discovered why your scenario went awry, ensure that you put safeguards in place to prevent the same mistake happening again. It is key that you learn from your error and be courageous about making changes and admitting that you were wrong. Ask for help to overcome the mistake if need be – you can’t change the actual mistake but your response to it can make all the difference.
Remember…
- A mistake is an action and doesn’t define you as a person, so there is no need to beat yourself up about it. Take what you can from the experience and learn so that you don’t make the same mistake twice.
- Don’t expect not to make mistakes, especially in business. The more challenging and ambitious your aims, the more ideas you are going to need to trial and the more often and difficult any setbacks may be. Take them on the chin though, as they are all necessary.
- Bear in mind the bigger picture and keep perspective. If you make a mistake, it’s not going to be the end of the world, although you naturally don’t want to cost yourself or the business any lasting damage. Whatever the error however, it can usually be fixed somehow so don’t panic in the day to day tasks but look at the overall scheme of things.
[testimonial name=”By Grant Finn” who=”CEO of Total Assist Group” imagelinks=”https://totalassist.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/Grant125.jpg” vertical=”no”]”I have worked tirelessly at Total Assist Group for over 10 years now. I have overall responsibility for executing the continuous growth strategy of the company.”[/testimonial]
