Your Foolproof Guide to Moving on After You Messed Up at Work

 

1. Allow Yourself to Feel Awful About it (But Not for Too Long)

In response to a stressful scenario, like making a mistake at work, it’s natural to feel frustrated, embarrassed, or even distressed for, say, 10-15 seconds. But ideally, after 15 seconds, the feeling should pass. A tiny shadow of negativity may linger, but in general, you get over the snafu.

However, sometimes—for all kinds of reasons—emotions get “stuck,” and instead of dissipating after a few seconds, they keeping building and building, like steam swirling inside a kettle.

2. Keep Things in Perspective

It can be difficult to maintain a sense of perspective when you’re upset with yourself, but try to make sure your emotional response is proportional to the blunder you made.

With very few exceptions—like if you’re a pilot, surgeon, or military personnel—making an error at work is not a life-or-death situation, and most mistakes can be resolved or corrected right away.

3. Confront Your Worst-Case Scenario—Then Let it Go

In life, there certainly are consequences for mistakes. But sometimes, your mind exaggerates and distorts the potential consequences for your mistake, sending you into a state of agony and stressing you out, which, ironically, can cause you to make more errors in the future.

It can be helpful to confront your personal worst-case scenario—whatever that may be—so that you can make peace with it and move on.

4. Apologize if You Need to—But Don’t Overdo It

If you need to apologize for your goof, do it swiftly and briefly: “Hi Jim, I made a mistake and I’m working on correcting it ASAP.”

Often, that’s the only sentence you need to say.

5. Create a Game Plan for Next Time

Evaluate what you need to do differently next time to make sure this same mistake doesn’t happen again. Were you multi-tasking beyond your ability, with dozens of tabs open on your browser? Were you rushing too fast to hit a deadline, missing important details in the process?

If you find an issue that you can address, do so. And for extra measure, if you feel that it would be beneficial to tell your boss about how you’re going to prevent mistakes in the future, do that, too.

6. Take Better Care of Yourself

Most Americans are sleep deprived, and persistent sleep deprivation will eventually catch up with you—in the form of impaired attention, alertness, concentration, reasoning, and problem solving. Some studies indicate that working while sleepy is just as bad as working while under the influence of alcohol.

7. Earn Back Trust Through Your Actions—Not Just Your Words

The best way to earn people’s trust and admiration is to consistently deliver great work. Period. Do that, and occasional bouts of forgetfulness or slip-ups here and there are likely to be quickly forgiven—and forgotten.

SOURCE:themuse.com