Mistakes have brought giant corporations to their knees. A cleaning service can be destroyed by employee (or owner) mistakes. Anyone who does anything worthwhile makes mistakes. The secret is to make fewer mistakes than everyone else.
Handling mistakes is critical. A “blow up” may lose an employee. An employee may bristle and get even for the chewing out. There may be ramifications from others who thought the errant employee was over penalized or was let off the hook too easily.
Punishment is the least used technique in dealing with mistakes today. More often, a supervisor just chews a little, stews a little and then tries to forget the matter. Meanwhile, the error producer sometimes doesn't even know the extent of the damage that resulted.
Three times when you should not say anything of importance to another person are when they are tired, angry or have just made a mistake. In baseball, a good manager hardly ever says anything to a player after an error is made. In fact, he won't say anything until a day or two later and then only in a constructive way.
Chewing a person out in front of others is a sure way to lose their confidence. Embarrassment can injure the self assurance of the person to a degree that they never recover from the experience. Think about the last time someone really chewed on you. No fun, was it?
Talk with the “guilty” party, a day or two after a mistake and define the way to do it right. You've cooled down by that time, and the initial embarrassment of the employee has waned. Handle the matter professionally, coolly and constructively. And above all never discuss the mistake, as a matter of gossip, with other people in the company.
©Bane-Clene® Corporation 2009 Reprinting or electronically publishing this article is strictly prohibited without permission from Bane-Clene Corp.
