The Best Advice I Ever Received...

It’s been some time ago now, but I remember it so clearly.? We had consultants that were in and out of our office, but we had a couple of consultants that were consistent. They were there to coach, make us better and more effective.? I had recently been named into a leadership role, and John, the senior leader of the consultants, came into my cube and sat down.

John looked at me and asked how I was doing settling into the new role, how things were going with the team, etc.? As we continued talking, John leaned in and asked if he could offer a word of advice.? “Of course!”, was my response.? John then started telling me about how to handle making mistakes.? He went on and said, “Look, you’re going to make mistakes at some point.? We all do.? The secret here is that no one really cares about the mistake because they expect they will happen from time to time.? What people really care about is what you are doing to fix it, and when will it be fixed.”? I have followed this advice throughout my career, and I can tell you, John has been right.? At this point, mistakes are rare, but I know that any time, they can come.? Let me share one instance that lives with me still today.

I was doing some consulting for marketing process and martech at a client I had been at before.? In fact, it was the first client I had with this company.? I was back to help refine some process they had and the technology solution.? I was known to most of the team and was working with a member of the team that I thought was empowered to make decisions.? Some of you can now see where this is going.? Long story short, that person was not empowered to make the decisions I thought he could, and things went South.? I get a call from my executive leader informing me that the client felt they had cause to throw me off the project, but wanted a response before making the decision.? Here’s where John’s advice came in.? I told my leader that I needed 2-3 weeks to right things, then defined the recovery plan.? I shared that I didn’t want anyone else cleaning up my messes, so I asked to stay and get this back on track.? I further asked that once I had it back on track to get me off the project.? It wasn’t because I was running from the mistake.? Quite to the contrary, I wanted to get it back on track and refocus the client on the solution and future, not what had transpired.? That is, a fresh start.? I worked day and night those couple of weeks and got things back on-track and then rolled off, but the story does not end there.

A couple years later, I get a request by name to go back to that same client.? They specifically wanted me.? I was intrigued.? Seems that the new leader was on the team when I made my mistake with them and observed my efforts to get them going back in the right direction and the lengths I went through to make it right.? I can assume there were a couple of key takeaways from observing what I had done:

·????? I owned the mistake I made.? (I never repeated that one again, it was too painful.)

·????? I made things right.?

·????? I showed urgency and effort to fix things as quickly as I possibly could.

·????? I didn’t leave them high and dry.? I made sure they were on the right path when I left.

·????? My focus was more on their success than taking things personal.

Following John’s advice over the years has created some of my biggest fans.? Yes, you read that right.? Some of my biggest fans came after I had made a mistake.? I even had a few clients thank me for fixing a mistake I had made.? I think it comes from owning your mistakes and making them right just as John said.? Fortunately, I’m a fast learner, so the mistakes continued to decrease quickly over the years, but I’m human like everyone else and can make them at any time.? There’s nothing like working day and night to fix a mistake you make to reinforce learning not to do that again.? You also get introspective in a hurry understanding the root causes which helps in other areas too.

Over the years, I have reshared John’s advice with many people.? I hope their results have been like mine.? People appreciate you making things right when you make a mistake.? That tells them they matter to you and you value their success.?

At this point, some may be asking, what if it wasn’t all your fault.? That is sometimes true; however, you owning your piece of it and making it all right is what will stand out to people.? As a leader, this is more often the case.? It is your team though, and you owe it to your team to help them find the path forward (in cases where they do not) by asking thoughtful questions to help them learn and make things right.? Then you share John’s advice with them so next time it happens they come to you and share:

1.??????? What happened,

2.??????? What they’re doing to fix it, and

3.??????? When it will be fixed.