You Made a Mistake – So What? It’s Good for Leadership Development

The good news is that mistakes, even big ones, do not have to remain permanently recorded in your career. Moreover, many of them actually contribute to organizational and personal learning – they are a crucial part of experimentation and a prerequisite for innovation. You can easily turn blunders into dry gold.

Prepared by Vanja Figenwald
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Anyone who has ever worked in an office for more than one day has made a mistake. And while some accept the inevitability of mistakes, no one really likes to be held accountable for them. The good news is that mistakes, even big ones, do not have to remain permanently recorded in your career. Moreover, many of them actually contribute to organizational and personal learning – they are a crucial part of experimentation and a prerequisite for innovation. Therefore, there is no need to worry if you have made a mistake at work; after all, who hasn’t? You can recover gracefully from it and use the experience gained to advance.
According to Paul Schoemaker, director of research at the Mack Center for Technological Innovation, most people overreact to their mistakes. More precisely, they asymmetrically assess the gains and losses of a situation so that the losses seem much larger. The result is attempts to cover up the mistake or, worse, to continue as before. Such behavior can be dangerous and costly.

A Different Framework
It is much better to accept mistakes, learn something from them, and move on. ‘Look forward and base decisions on the future, not the past,’ says Schoemaker. The most useful thing you can do is to translate the mistake into a valuable moment of your leadership, that is, a moment of learning. Here are a few principles that can help in turning blunders into dry gold. First and foremost, it is important to be transparent, open, and acknowledge your mistake. Do not try to blame others. Even if it is a collective mistake, accept your role in it. In cases where someone has been hurt, apologize, but do not keep apologizing and becoming overly defensive. The most important thing is to be action-oriented and focused on the future – ask yourself how you will make amends or what you will do differently next time. Once you have acknowledged your mistake, it may be appropriate to give it a different framework. 

This does not mean giving yourself an excuse, but rather helping yourself to see the mistake in a different light. Bad decisions or flawed processes can sometimes lead to mistakes, but that does not mean that every bad outcome is a mistake. It is important to understand what was external and what was internal. Explaining in a non-defensive way what led to the mistake can help you understand what happened and how to avoid it in the future.

A Learning Culture
Mistakes play a crucial role in leadership development. The best kind of mistake is one where the costs are small, but the lessons are great, says Schoemaker. If the mistake was the result of a bad decision, explain to your boss and other stakeholders how you will avoid repeating the same or similar thing. You must respond quickly before people start judging your ability and expertise. You need to address it immediately, be ahead of the events, and resolve the issue.
By demonstrating that you have changed as a result of that mistake, you reassure superiors, colleagues, and subordinates, letting them know that they can trust you with the same tasks in the future without fear of repeating the mistake. ‘If you are going to pay the price for a mistake, you must learn from it,’ explains Schoemaker, and this is much easier in a learning culture than in a success culture where mistakes are often viewed with much more disapproval. However, regardless of the office atmosphere, you must work out how to reshape the mistake from a problem into an advantage.

A Support Network
A support network can help you a lot in this. Research has shown that a healthy support network has three components: authentic relationships full of trust, diversity of perspectives, and reciprocity. Therefore, ask current or former colleagues, or people outside the organization, for their view on the mistake and what they think should be done to correct it. They will likely have some useful advice on what context to give the mistake and how to restore your reputation.
Sometimes it can be difficult to regain trust after a mistake. It is important not to let mistakes deter you from experimenting. Once that is out of you, focus on the future. If people have started to question your expertise because of the mistake, provide more information to regain their trust. Remember that mistakes are not a sign of weakness or incompetence; recovering from them demonstrates resilience and perseverance. Experts emphasize that many employers seek people who have made mistakes but ultimately overcame the situation and advanced afterward.

Time for Forgiveness
Mistakes vary in degree and type, making it harder to recover from some than others. Schoemaker notes that it is often easier to get over group mistakes because there is a certain distribution of responsibility. Mistakes that result in losing someone’s trust can have lasting consequences and taking the blame. In other words, remorse is key. If your mistake caused someone to lose trust, approach that person and offer a sincere apology. Ask what you can do to restore that trust and correct the mistake, but be patient; forgiveness sometimes takes time. Therefore, it is certainly important to acknowledge the mistake to yourself and others and try to correct it as best as possible. Apologies should not be insisted upon, but they should be given when the situation requires it. One should learn a lesson from the mistake and apply the knowledge gained to future situations. During that situation, it is good to rely on people who have knowledge or wisdom. In any case, the worst thing is to sink into defeatism and continuously revert to the past, that is, to learn nothing from that experience.