OK, this one was me, I did it. And I should have known better, I do know better, I am an editor and an educated writer, and I screwed up.
Recently we mailed out our first newsletter, hard print by snail mail, and I typed in this blog address incorrectly, and I didn't catch the error and nobody else did either.
So what do you do when one of your team members makes a mistake? And it is a good one.
Of course, I was just stunned, I couldn't believe I did that. But there it was bright as day. My client was standing behind me when I realized and she realized my error. Of course I apologized, then we moved on to laughing about it, too late now right? And I am sure she won't let me forget it and tease me about it for as long as it's funny.
After this incident we talked about this topic. What is the best way to deal with a team member that makes a mistake? Here are some ideas we came up with:
- Accept it. Everyone makes mistakes. However, you may want to reconsider the relationship if they make the kind of mistakes you can't live with.
- Choose progressive thinking team members. No mistake should occur twice, choose team members that are capable of improving themselves and are conscious of their importance on the team.
- Work with people you can trust. Good team members try to do a good job and if they make a mistake you know that they didn't do it on purpose or because they do not care.
- Find solutions. If it is the kind of error that you think could happen again, put your heads together and figure out the best way to prevent the same kind of problem in the future.
- Don't freak out. If you overreact you may foster a situation where your team members will be nervous about fessing up or they will be afraid of you. If this happens and they are anxious all day - nothing gets done. On the other hand, if you anger yourself you are also impeding your own production.
Author: Pamela S. Stevens
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