A few days ago a very talented member of my staff reached out to me in a very disconcerted way saying that she made a big mistake that could impact a very important ongoing project.
She chose to place emphasis on the fact that the mistake was hers and hers alone. She also made a deliberate decision not to point fingers at her team, external circumstances or anything beyond herself.
The truth was that I was pushing for a very tight deadline, and mistakes are inevitable. In fact if we are not making mistakes it probably means we re not pushing hard enough.
What I heard from my staff:
- I am aware of the mistake,
- I have taken ownership of it,
- I know what to do to fix it,
- I am already fixing it,
- I have learned from it.
The outcome: A few hours later the error was fixed and the innovative product she and her team had been working on was launched to the market successfully.
Check it out here: https://icardata.icarasia.com