Mistakes Happen – Make the Best of It

 In the Telephone Answering Industry we frequently make quick decisions under pressure.  We’re rushed, there is another call to answer, and then another.  We’re the shift supervisor, questions coming at us from agents, clients and other supervisors AND OUR OWN supervisor.  “How do I do this?”, “What should I say to…”, “Why did this happen?”  How can we NOT make a mistake now and then? 

Here is our philosophy, “We are human – we will make mistakes.”  We don’t scream and we don’t threaten     people’s jobs.  A mistake was made.  We try to figure out why so we can keep it from happening again.  If you have even an inkling of what caused it – share it so we can see if we can find a better way to do something.  If it was just “I hit the wrong key” or “I didn’t read the next step correctly” it’s OK. 

A mistake was made, you did it, OWN IT, try to learn from it and then MOVE ON.

Please don’t be defensive about mistakes – we have ALL made some doozies, from the president on down - we are not immune. 

Let’s imagine you have just been told you made a mistake.  Either A - you knew you made it when it happened; or B - you were totally unaware and are just finding out.  If A – you knew you did it, GOSH it would have been better to let someone know so we could do whatever we could to mitigate it.  So please make telling someone about it your standard operating      procedure – 9 times out of 10 you won’t get away with it and trying to hide it makes it that much worse.   If the answer is B – then just say so, you    didn’t realize you made an error, I see what I did, I’ll try not to make that mistake again.  DONE.

Excuses – there are many definitions for excuses in the dictionary.  “To give reasons in defense of oneself”, “To try to pardon, (a fault) apologize or give reasons for…”, “To serve as an explanation or justification for…” the list goes on but those three are the biggies.  Excuses are used to try to mitigate our error, but we all know, they usually only muddy the waters.

No one likes the job of pointing out errors.  But we have to do it because that’s how we learn.  When we have to point out an error, and then argue over it – that’s when our task goes from bad to worse!  No one wants to first have to convince someone they really did make a mistake, and then listen to why it “kind of” wasn’t a mistake.  “The instructions weren’t clear”, “this was an isolated case”, “it was a special circumstance”.  If the instructions REALLY aren’t clear, let’s get that fixed, otherwise, it was just a mistake.  Own it, learn from it, and be DONE with it!

Life goes on, enjoy the rest of your day.

 

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