Avoiding Mistakes
People are people and people tend to make mistakes, but business mistakes can be costly. Whether it costs money or employees, employers need to know how to handle when they make a mistake. If you are an employer.
How to handle mistakes
The first thing you need to do is realize the mistake. It’s cliché, but an important step. Then you need to come up with a plan to FIX the mistake, not HIDE it. Let the people this mistake effects know what the implications are of the mistake. Even if it’s small and will not have much of an impact, being honest with your employees and right hands know will open up communication lines and sets the company culture. If a boss is honest, employees are more likely to be honest.
Letting people know about your mistake can also become an ASSET if you have never dealt with a similar issue before. The more people who are in the loop means the more brains are working on rectifying the problem. This does not mean that every employee needs to know every small issue that is going on behind the scenes, but transparency is key. Nothing is worse than being on a sinking ship and being told that it’s not.
The next thing you have to do is APOLOGIZE for the mistake. Taking responsibility is a sign of a good leader and will improve how you are perceived at work. It will also improve rapport between you, your employees, and your clients. No one likes a greedy secretive CEO.
How to avoid the mistakes
Tallyfy has a list of several things you can do to minimize the mistakes you make a work. Some options are obvious but often ignored.
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You always hear about the multitasking business owner. CEO’s and managers have to wear many hats throughout the day and complete tasks of all sorts under increasingly shorter deadlines. Well, we are a LOT worse at multitasking than you think. Yes, that includes very smart, successful, and ambitious CEO’s.
As an employer, things at work can become overwhelming and engulf your entire life. When you own a business, you don’t leave work when you go home. This work hyperdrive can lead to mistakes. When we are overwhelmed, we make more of them. It’s important to stay grounded and relevant to your business. Do not become so far removed as an effort to dissociate from the stress that you forget what your company is about and what the dream is.
Make sure to keep on top of things at work and give yourself enough time to solve everyday problems. Try a planner or calendar if you don’t already and go down to the hours to put yourself at ease. Try not to stress about the work you have scheduled at three o’clock when it’s only nine. This will also keep you from overbooking yourself, after all, you can’t be in two places at once.
Trust the people you work with. Let go of the reigns a little bit. If you are working on something that is critical for the survival of your business, let someone be a second set of eyes. Sometimes a fresh take on things will catch mistakes or a new outlook. Revision is important to any process. This can also create a system of checks and balances. Having a few extra people involved in decision making breeds a space for fresh ideas and a check on power plays. It’s harder for mistakes to slip through the cracks if there are more eyes looking for them.
Sometimes, you cannot control mistakes, but you can control how you handle them.