Mistakes: How to Handle Them

We all make mistakes.  But, people more often remember how others handled their errors rather than the errors themselves, according to author Michael Houlihan and co-author Bonnie Harvey in a soon-to-be published book The Barefoot Spirit: How Hardship, Hustle, and Heart Built a Bestselling Wine. According to Houlihan , admitting a mistake can be a valuable opportunity to gain loyalty and respect.

With humility and honesty, Houlihan and Harvey admitted when they had erred and found that this approach helped diffuse tense situations. By forthrightly acknowledging their missteps, the pair found that If you’re ready to admit to a mistake, here are the steps Houlihan recommends:

• Cop to it. Yes, it’s tough to admit you’re wrong, but the sooner you do so, the sooner you can short circuit the drama and the faster you can move on to the next, more important step: what you are going to do about it.
• Identify how it happened. If you admit fault but do nothing about it, then you have set the stage for it to happen again. At Barefoot, Houlihan always made sure that employees felt comfortable reporting mistakes so that they could take steps to rectify them.
• Aim, don’t blame. If a mistake truly can be traced to a source outside your company, the best approach is to determine what you can do from your end to prevent the situation from recurring.
• Write it down. Even if you have resolved the issue that led to a mistake, if you don’t record what has happened and how to avoid it in the future, you are in danger of repeating it.
• Resolve that it won’t recur. Explain to the injured party the steps you are taking to ensure it will not happen again. If you handle an error in this way, you will reinforce that you are, in fact, a trustworthy company to be relied upon.

“Remember, what people recall most of all is how you handle missteps and errors, not what they were,” he concludes. “So don’t miss out on these golden opportunities to show your integrity, reduce the drama, and improve the way your business operates. That is how you make mistakes right.”

Excerpted from LifeHealthPro, © 2012 Summit Business Media publication. All Rights Reserved.