When you’re a manager, you take on accountability for your team’s performance and behavior. There is a fine balance of recognizing the limits to what you can control (really just your actions), and that which you can influence (your team’s performance). You can influence your team through motivating talks, or by being real about the consequences of poor performance and bad judgment.
Inevitably, your team is going to make mistakes and mess up. While some mistakes warrant extreme measures, like termination, there are many more occurrences where a mistake does not threaten a person’s job, but actually requires that she learn an important lesson. When this happens, it’s important that as a manager you do these 3 things.
1. Demonstrate allegiance to your team. If one of your staff members screws up and the CEO notices, and brings it to your attention, you can align yourself with the staff member, while acknowledging the wrong. If your staff member shared information that she wasn’t supposed to, you should wholeheartedly apologize for the information breach, and then help the CEO understand from where the employee was coming, and that the breach was not done with malice.
2. Own what part you played in the mistake. Had you made it crystal clear that this information was not to be shared? Can you imagine how your message might have been miscommunicated? Had you put too much on the staff member’s plate, leaving her overwhelmed and prone to mistakes? Could you have checked in with her when she appeared most overwhelmed instead of assuming she’d handle it? Demonstrate your humility by acknowledging how you could have helped to prevent this.
3. Announce the plan you will execute to prevent a repeat situation. Assure the CEO that such a breach will never happen again. To make sure of this promise, you’re going to have the entire team retrained in confidentiality practices, and you’re going to review the incident and identify where the communication break down was between you and your staff member.
When someone on your team makes a mistake, it’s important that you make room to reflect on what you both could have done better. After all, if you were the one messing up, which no doubt will happen one day if it hasn’t already, wouldn’t you want a boss who gives you the benefit of the doubt and defends you?
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