Admit it When You Make a Mistake

Admit it When You Make a Mistake

It might be one of the hardest things to do but it’s also one of the most valuable business decisions to make, admitting when you’re wrong or when you have made a mistake. In my past years of work experience I have found that management and employees alike find ‘admitting wrong’ a real challenge. It does take considerable guts to admit when you have made an error no matter what your role is.

Clients and Customers

Admitting wrong to a client or customer is even a greater challenge and most people would choose rather to ‘sweep it under the carpet’ and deny that anything wrong ever happened. While this may be the easy way out, this is a huge mistake. It’s possible that you might get away with it a few times but eventually it will come back and bite you hard! Rest assured that if a customer or client finds out if you have done them wrong in one way or another and you never owned up to it, you won’t have a hope of doing business with that person or company again. We all know that bad news travels like the speed of light and before long everyone seems to know about this incident or at least the customer’s version of it. Not only has this cost you this customer but it may also tarnish or even sever other business relationships as well. If however you approach the customer professionally and you honestly explain what has happened and then apologize, this error will allow you to maintain your credibility and often it may cost you nothing! As a bonus you also get to walk away with a clear conscience and you will sleep better at night! We are all human and we all make mistakes. Admitting wrong takes confidence and an inner desire to do right but it always pays off! Honesty is the best policy.

 Spencer Anderson