Unfortunately, at some point, everyone will make a mistake at work. That includes you and me! I’ve made my fair share of mistakes at work over the years and still do. In our Tempstar corporate office, our payroll/accounting department has a tradition of passing around a giant eraser “for BIG mistakes” when someone makes one (which isn’t often). Last year, our CFO got the eraser! This just goes to show that mistakes happen to everyone at all levels. The most important thing everyone needs to learn is how to recover from mistakes. How do you go about that? I’ve got a few steps for you to follow below.

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Take Responsibility

When you make a mistake, no matter how big, you need to take responsibility for it. Admit where you failed and accept the results of it.

It’s easy, and a bit tempting, to want to find a way out, to lessen the impact. You might find yourself looking for a way to blame someone else or blame the equipment you were using. If the mistake you made was really bad, you might be tempted to do whatever it takes to cover it up or make it less bad.

However, it’s always best for you to admit fault, even if things could get ugly. You might end up looking worse if you shift the blame or make excuses.

Make It Right

Whatever mistake you made, do your best to make it right where appropriate. If it’s as simple as fixing a product, fixing a line of code, or fixing a relationship, do your best to make it happen.

Not all things can be fixed easily. For example, if you make a product incorrectly and it ships, that’s it, the product is gone. A decent way to make this situation better is to offer a refund or discount.

Unfortunately, some things can’t be fixed at all. If you make a mistake so big that you can’t fix it, be as apologetic as possible and ask if there is something you can do to make it better.

Learn From It

Moving forward, maybe the most important lesson how to recover from mistakes at work is to learn from them. After all, you don’t want to make the same mistake twice!

Take some time to reflect on what happened. Can you point to where you went wrong? If you can, you’re already halfway there.

The other half is figuring out how to prevent the mistake from happening again. Sometimes, all it takes is slowing down a bit and reviewing your process.