Soft Skills Sagas: The Problem-Solving Mindset

My boss was out of town on personal business and I was kind of in charge while he was away. To me, that didn’t mean dishing out orders or making any major decisions. It simply meant doing whatever needed to be done…and getting my colleagues to do the same. It seemed an easy enough task. My boss’s absence would be temporary anyway.

When the order came in for one of the products we supplied, I was a little uneasy. My boss typically handled this side of things; collating the list of components needed for the customer’s particular specifications, some of which could be very detailed. Missing out one component could prevent the product from working as it should. As a recent graduate waiting to start my service year, my job had simply been to ensure the customers got their goods and their invoices. This was the first time I would have to fill out an order myself.

When I told my boss about it, he was a little concerned. Unfortunately, he wasn’t able to leave where he was, so he asked me to handle it. He reminded me that I had assisted him enough times to do it on my own.

Emboldened by his confidence in me, I worked on the order and sent the estimate to the client. I noticed he sounded a little puzzled at the amount I quoted but agreed to the terms. We settled on the delivery date and that appeared to be that.

The next day, though, I felt restless. There was something about the order and the client’s attitude that bothered me, so I decided to go over the estimate again.

As I suspected and had desperately hoped wasn’t true, I had left out an important component. What was worse, this component would increase the estimate by a quarter of the total cost!

Panic! Panic!! Panic!!! ???????? If I were to check the definition for ‘panic’ in the dictionary right then, I would see my picture right next to it!

What would I do? How would I tell my boss? Where would I get that kind of money from?

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Read the rest of the story, as well as the #careernuggets on my blog, https://toyintalkstalent.wordpress.com/2020/12/02/soft-skills-sagas-the-problem-solving-mindset/

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