Losing Fear over Making Mistakes

Losing Fear Over Making MistakesLosing fear over making mistakes begins by recognizing the opportunity that recovering from mistakes provides to deepen and strengthen personal connection; in and out of the workplace.

Making mistakes is normal and OK. For example, while performing at Business Theatre Live last Tuesday, I inadvertently walked out on stage without a remote control device for advancing the presentation slides, which created an awkward moment after realizing what happened. Video was rolling and while some presenters may have been mortified at this situation, the reality is that mistakes happen all the time and the only variable is how people choose to react. In this case, the reaction was a dose of self-deprecating humor, audience laughter and a 15 second break to regroup and get the clicker. Life goes on and this incident provided opportunity to connect and share with few audience members afterwards about how mistakes are only a big deal if you or others choose to make them a big deal… Remember this when building a Super-Team at your company. Mistakes are opportunities in disguise!

Making mistakes provide opportunity to give thanks to others. On Friday, I made a mistake that resulted in wrong information going out to 2,000 people. Immediately after this was brought to my attention, the team quickly responded with a back-office solution which provided the chance for me to express thanks and gratitude to them for transforming a potential problem into a non-issue. When someone makes a mistake in the workplace, it provides others occasion to strengthen team chemistry when they overcome the mistake quickly rather than instead choosing to “point, accuse and blame.”

Why talk about mistakes? In the dog-eat-dog corporate world, workplaces are littered with people who look out for #1 (themselves) by tearing down peers, seeking to climb the ladder of success at the expense of others. I believe this behavior, if allowed to survive in an organization, is a great way to destroy healthy culture and prevent development of super-teams. Instead, choose to talk about mistakes in a healthy way and learn how to develop resiliency and ability to recover quickly. Focus on the solution instead of where to place the blame…

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