The pressure to perform at a high level can often result in mistakes and inefficient habits. Learn from your mistakes and take ownership of them. Communicate in an open and honest manner. Ask for or provide help when needed and remember that every new mistake is also an opportunity for better performance.

Why a workplace mistake could be the best move you’ve made

Ah, the work blooper. Whether you’re an intern or the CEO, a self-orientated perfectionist or if you swear you triple-checked your email recipient, one day you WILL make a mistake. It’s an inevitable and unavoidable part of life.

For article research, I asked friends, colleagues and LinkedIn’ers if they’d be willing to reveal their most unforgettable career-clangers. The responses wove a fascinating (and hilarious) tapestry of goofs. A helpful reminder that we’re all human – it’s the quirks of our mental make up that truly makes us interesting – and that even the most painful slip-ups can be helpful…

Why do we make mistakes anyway?

From clean forgetting the attachment on an all-company email to accidentally forwarding a highly inappropriate spam video to your Chair of Trustees – rather than flagging it with your PR team as you’d intended – the workplace gaffe is cringingly familiar.

It’s safe to say most people have experienced the palpable gut-wrench of making an absolute clanger. So why do we make mistakes? Are we simply being careless or in a rush? Ignoring our intuitions and pushing ahead with an approach we know deep down will fail? Or is there more at play than personality and intelligence?

American journalist and author Joseph T. Hallinan thinks so. In his book ‘ Why We Make Mistakes ’ , he believes humans are pre-programmed to mess up because of our inbuilt ‘design flaws’. That it’s the way we think, see and remember – and forget – that leads us to make mistakes. By delving into psychology, neuroscience, and economics, he deduces that the same qualities that make us efficient can also make us prone to error.

These design flaws, like when our eyes play tricks on us, are all-too-relatable. ‘I once sent an email about how incompetent and what a pain in the a***e a client was – only to send it directly to him’ said one of my friends.

Not spotting a missing letter can also wreak havoc, as a teacher friend discovered. ‘My teaching assistant was responsible for the gardening club and needed to write an emergency flyer home to parents due to bad weather. She intended to ask them to wear wet-weather gear – wellies in particular. But, the note read something along the lines of. ‘Dear gardeners, please don’t forget to bring your willies to school tomorrow!’. It was my job to check – I missed it and the note went home. Thank goodness our parents are fairly good humoured!’.

Why is it good to mess up?

None of us are entirely flawless but we’re acclimatised to curated perfection in our virtual worlds. We share our successes and luminous achievements to our followers, but we rarely exhibit our failures when things haven’t gone so well.

Then again, messing up can feel like the end of the world. The immediate reaction is usually negative; panic, nausea, wild irrationality. As you simultaneously update your LinkedIn profile in readiness for a new-job search and WhatsApp your friends requesting an urgent wine-up to wallow in catharsis, you can feel like the worst (*add job title here) in the country.

Yet giving yourself permission to make mistakes could actually make you stronger. No matter how crushing they feel at the time, getting it wrong can be right in the long term. As Viv Groskop explains in her article for The Pool , ‘ the more we stumble the less likely we are to head towards a major fall’. Making a mistake allows you to pause and reflect on the decisions made and actions taken which caused the error. Essentially, you get clarity on what’s gone wrong and can take steps to put it right.

Post-mistake anxiety – the I never want to experience this embarrassment or worry ever again feeling – can be the driving force to do better next time. You may also push yourself in a way you wouldn’t if you’re used to playing it safe and striving for perfection.

Author Elizabeth Day’s inspiring podcast ‘ How To Fail With Elizabeth Day ’ celebrates the things that haven’t quite gone right. Every week, she asks her interviewee what they learned from their failures and how to do it better next time, – and succeed. In her article for The Guardian , she shares, ‘I realised that the biggest, most transformative moments of my life came through crisis or failure’. Crucially, she survived. ​

So, what can I learn from a mistake?

► Embed a valuable skill. When one senior designer first started out in publishing, he printed ‘10,000s of John Grisham audiobooks with the title misspelt on the spine. It was…quite a biggy’. Gulp. Yet, the one thing they’ve carried with them, apart from an innate fear of a legal thriller, is how crucial it is to double check anything that goes public. My friend who sent a disparaging email about a client TO the client? ‘I never wrote a single word about anyone on my work email ever again!’.

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How should managers react to mistakes at work?

Managers are responsible for reacting to and assisting employees with mistakes at work. Even in the most high-pressure situations, doing so with care is not only good for morale but will prevent similar mistakes in the future. How a manager reacts to mistakes at work can make all the difference between transformational leadership and losing otherwise great employees.

Great managers can also recognize when they themselves have made mistakes. Before you approach a team member, take a close look at yourself to see if you’re really worried about their work. If so, what do you think about their performance? Who is responsible for their work so far?

You may find that you’ve contributed to the environment, the process, or the miscommunication that made the mistake possible. Reflecting on this ahead of time will relieve everyone of playing the blame game and instead solve the problem from a fair and level-headed place.

When approaching an employee who has made a mistake, start by being curious about it. Ask questions about what happened and what their perspective is on the situation. Use active listening skills when speaking to team members, as it will let them know that you are paying attention.

They may fess up immediately. If they take the blame for something that wasn’t their fault, which is pretty common, address that. If they don’t admit to making a mistake, approach the situation with care and focus on the issue, not placing blame.

Give the team members the autonomy to figure it out on their own. Then, provide your feedback in a fair and balanced manner. Afterward, encourage them to learn from it and avoid repeating the same mistake.

When communicating with an employee who has made a mistake, in-person meetings are often best. However, many teams are now made up of contractors, gig workers, and freelancers who work remotely so a physical location is not always accessible. If that’s the case, lean on digital tools to illustrate the issue.

For example, reports and individual task assignment lists from project management tools. These can also be used to prevent future mistakes, as managers can easily use them to communicate the actions and behaviors expected of team members and improve the overall work management process.

There may be times when mistakes happen over and over again. If that’s the case, the employee may be engaging in a pattern of behavior that keeps them from performing at their best. Managers can step in and provide ideas for healthy habits that will prevent the same type of mistake from cropping up again.

For example, you can ask a marketing team member to overcome a common marketing mistake of missing a content publishing deadline by writing a to-do list every day. This will help them stay on top of their tasks while also motivating them to finish their work at the same time.

How to admit a mistake in a professional environment

You may end up in a situation in a professional environment where an apology is needed. And when it comes to making mistakes at work, honesty is the best policy. Certain actions can break trust, but an apology can help rebuild it.

It’s important to address the person you’re apologizing to by name, regardless of their status. Having an open conversation can help both of you understand the other person better, and it can prevent an insincere apology from happening.

If the mistake you made affected someone personally, it’s important to validate the feelings of the other person. Having the courage to admit that you’re sorry can make a huge difference in how people treat you.

Take responsibility for your actions and have a plan in place for how to make amends before you approach the appropriate person or people. Having a plan in place shows that you’re thinking about how to make things right. You may even want to read about examples of taking responsibility at work and model your behavior on whichever feels appropriate for the situation.

Sources:

https://www.harrishill.co.uk/blog/2018/12/Why%20a%20workplace%20mistake%20could%20be%20the%20best%20move%20you’ve%20made
https://www.wrike.com/blog/how-to-handle-mistakes-at-work/
https://www.indeed.com/career-advice/career-development/mistakes-at-work

Empathy can also help you understand and address your coworkers’ challenges, such as an increased workload or a personal matter. You can practice empathy by offering to help in any way you can. This gesture can show your team members that you are dedicated to ensuring the team’s success and will assist them to reach team goals.

Examples Of Empathy In The Workplace

It’s no surprise that great leaders and thriving organizations care about empathetic communication among their teams. But research shows that empathetic communication skills are in short supply. In this article, we outline six ways leaders and workplaces can practice empathetic communication in the workplace.

Empathy includes understanding another person’s feelings and perspective. It can be a powerful tool for leaders and managers. Using empathy helps us to navigate our relationships and the world around us. It is a critical piece of emotional intelligence.

Empathy can also give you a career boost. A study by DDI, a management consulting company, found it was a critical driver of overall performance. Researchers have also found that those with empathy are rated as higher performers by their bosses. Unfortunately, the DDI study found that only 40 percent of leaders have strong empathic abilities.

What Is Empathy?

In its simplest form, empathy is the ability to recognize emotions in others, and to understand other people’s perspectives on a situation. At its most developed, empathy enables you to use that insight to improve someone else’s mood and to support them through challenging situations.

Empathy is often confused with sympathy, but they are not the same thing. Sympathy is a feeling of concern for someone, and a sense that they could be happier. Unlike empathy, sympathy doesn’t involve shared perspective or emotions.

You can feel sympathy for someone you see in tears in the street, for example, without knowing anything about their situation. Sympathy may develop into empathy, but doesn’t necessarily do so.

According to influential psychologist Daniel Goleman, empathy is one of the five key components of emotional intelligence – a vital leadership skill. It develops through three stages: cognitive empathy, emotional empathy and compassionate empathy. We discuss each stage in turn, below.

Cognitive Empathy

Cognitive empathy is the ability to understand what another person might be thinking or feeling. It need not involve any emotional engagement by the observer.

Managers may find cognitive empathy useful in understanding how their team members are feeling, and therefore what style of leadership would get the best from them today. Similarly, sales executives can use it to gauge the mood of a customer, helping them to choose the most effective tone for a conversation.

Cognitive empathy is a mostly rational, intellectual, and emotionally neutral ability. This means that some people use it for negative purposes. For example, those with a Machiavellian personality trait may use cognitive empathy to manipulate people who are emotionally vulnerable.

Emotional Empathy

Emotional empathy is the ability to share the feelings of another person, and so to understand that person on a deeper level. It’s sometimes called "affective empathy" because it affects or changes you. It’s not just a matter of knowing how someone feels, but of creating genuine rapport with them.

3 tips to develop your empathy in the workplace

As a manager, developing these skills should be top of mind if you want to create a team built on trust, connection, and open communication. Here are some tips to help you flex that empathy muscle!

1. See things from your employee’s perspective by getting involved in their day

While this may seem obvious, putting yourself in your team’s shoes will help you remember what their day-to-day struggles look and feel like. One of the quickest ways to build empathy for your team and understand what they need is to go through what they are going through.

We spoke with Mario the manager who explained to us that his team was working slower than anticipated and not on schedule to submit a project. Before getting upset with them, he knew he needed to understand where they were coming from.

🎙 “I would show up on-site as early as they did so that I could spend the day working with them. This helped me better understand their roadblocks so that I could help them find a solution. I knew that I would not be able to move the project along any quicker without really understanding what my team was going through.” – Mario

💡 Tip: Before drawing conclusions about someone’s behavior or outcomes, ask yourself if you’ve done enough to empathize, and consider alternative explanations. This is all part of taking on their perspective!

2. Sharpen your active listening skills

Sam the manager explains that when he notices someone on his team acting out of the norm, he will often ask them questions to better understand what they are going through beyond work.

🎙 “Once they start talking, I will simply listen. This helps them feel comfortable opening up and I often respond by letting them know that I am here to support them. I encourage them to take the time and space they need to express themselves and don’t judge or question their feelings.” – Sam

Why is empathy important in the workplace?

Each person has their own values, cultural understandings, backgrounds and perspectives that make them unique. You can use your ability to empathize and understand others when working on these types of teams. Here are other benefits to being empathetic at work:

1. Improves communication

When you practice empathy, you are better able to adapt your communication style to the person or group you are interacting with. You can adjust your tone of voice or body language to best fit the conversation, such as if you are giving a presentation or speaking with a supervisor.

2. Strengthens working relationships

3. Boosts creative thinking

When you use empathy in the workplace, you may also develop more creative solutions. As a team, your company may ask you to consider your audience’s perspective or the most important needs of your target customers. Using empathy can help you and your team members put yourselves in the customer’s place and think of strategies that would most appeal to you in that situation.

Understanding a product or service from the recipient’s point of view can help you identify challenges or opportunities you hadn’t thought of before and be more willing to experiment with new solutions.

4. Increases sales and investment opportunities

Empathy in the workplace can help you better understand the motivation of your current and future stakeholders, such as clients, customers and investors.

Investors may have differing motivations for choosing companies, so you can practice empathy by researching your potential investors. Discover their professional background to identify any similarities you may share. During your conversation, appeal to their knowledge and experience that likely impacts their decisions.

You can apply the same research tactics and discussion methods when securing contracts with new clients or updating old contracts with current clients. Research to discover what is important to them so you can appeal to their needs in your pitch. Identify potential challenges their company may face that your company can provide solutions to.

The benefits of empathy:

Empathy is being able to put yourself in someone else’s shoes and understand what they might be experiencing. This helps you connect with those around you and can lead to a healthier work environment where people don’t feel alone or isolated.

A lack of empathy can cause problems as well. According to studies, workplaces that have a “cutthroat” attitude and create a culture that doesn’t value teamwork or compassion for one another suffer from higher turnover rates.

Instead of focusing on the bigger picture, employees become more concerned with their own personal progress which can lead to infighting and backstabbing within the company.

References:

https://www.togetherplatform.com/blog/empathetic-communication
https://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/EmpathyatWork.htm#:~:text=How%20to%20Develop%20Empathy%20at%20Work%201%20Give,%22right%20way%22%20to%20demonstrate%20your%20compassionate%20empathy.
https://officevibe.com/blog/empathy-in-the-workplace
https://www.indeed.com/career-advice/career-development/empathy-in-the-workplace
https://academyflex.com/empathy-in-the-workplace/