Ombuds Report: It’s okay to make mistakes

When mistakes happen, we all have different ways that we combat them. Sometimes we simply ignore them, sometimes they bother us and we get super embarrassed by them, or we can sometimes have feelings such as sadness and regret for the mistake happening. In the workplace sometimes people lose their cool in a meeting or forget to submit a report that was due at 3 pm. There are times when we just inevitably mess up or fail. These bumps in the road are a normal part of our lives, but if you manage them poorly, they can reduce your trustworthiness and damage your reputation. Growing up I can remember so many times where I made mistakes. For me when I make mistakes, I sometimes get emotional depending on how big the mistake is. For example, I remember always being clumsy and accidentally knocking something over and one time it led to breaking one of my grandma’s favorite vases. What I want to discuss this month is what to do when we do make mistakes.

My solution for what to do when you make a mistake is to be proactive. What I mean by that is being aware of the mistakes that you have made and addressing what took place. This demonstrates your awareness of the problem and relieves others from the potential discomfort of bringing it to your attention. The next part of the solution, which I think is a vital part, is being able to offer an apology. When you are offering the apology, make sure that it is genuine and humble. For example, with my grandmother’s vase, I was scared to admit what happened because I knew that she would be upset with me, but what I was doing was thinking about how it would have affected me and not her. At moments like these, it is impactful that you make a sincere apology, and not be defensive. For example you would not start the apology by saying “I’m sorry if you feel that way.” The word “If” implies that the other person is being irrational or overly sensitive.

Whatever the case may be, I think we all know that mistakes can be embarrassing and discouraging, especially in the workplace. However, as I stated above it is what you do in the face of that mistake or misstep that leads you to real growth. In the moment of a mistake, you have to pause and ask yourself what to do next. I feel like as a college student, I have made a few huge mistakes, but I have also made small mistakes such as spelling mistakes and forgetting to reread an email before I send it, or maybe even neglecting to follow up with someone who helped me out. Whatever the case may be, once you realize that the mistake has been committed, you can define the difference between regret and growth. This means taking a moment to live in that particular mistake, and then also resisting the urge to just brush it off or pass the blame to another person. Instead, after you realize that you have committed a mistake, you take that time to “own it.” After owning it you have to sit in it for a minute and don’t let the moment pass without making it a learning experience.

I am going to give you a three-step method to help you own your mistakes. The first step is acknowledging your error. In this step you are realizing that you made the mistake and where you are in that process of saying, “aw geez, I really messed up.” From this stage you should ask yourself what led to this mistake happening. Was it a lack of attention? Was it a misunderstanding? What led to this mistake transpiring? The next step is making a plan. What I mean by this is actively writing down what happened and then figuring out how to not make that mistake again. Making this plan will allow you to make it harder for you to make the same mistake next time. The last step is giving yourself grace and just acknowledging that we all make mistakes. We are all humans, and mistakes are bound to happen whether we want them to happen or not. Every time a mistake happens, we can’t beat ourselves up about it and make ourselves feel bad. We have to take in everything we learned from that mistake and move on.