When Good Work Goes Wrong
Authored By: Luke Waite
It feels so good when projects work perfectly and things go smoothly. You can hear a sort of humming sound, everything is clicking, folks are collaborating, everything is as it should be. But what about when work doesn’t feel this way? Much of my working career I’ve experienced the later. The point here is not to point the finger at previous work places but rather to point out exactly how to learn from work that has gone wrong.
I spend a few minutes every day thinking about the work I did and how I could have done it better. How could I have had better conversations with folks or how might I have handled or managing a situation better? Could I have sent out my emails at a different time or maybe I should have done a check in after lunch when folks weren’t quite as hungry? I get it, a burrito is much more tasty than my questions about the work at hand. It’s just as important to take an assessment of your work when things don't go as planned as it does when things do go well.
Don’t lash out.
I’ll admit it, when work goes wrong, the easiest thing to do is to find a person who “underperformed” and let them know about it, but it’s likely not all their fault. Further, if you are in charge of the team, project or product then you have to acknowledge that everything rises and falls on you. No, you are not lifting the whole structure but when it falls, it’s your fault for not putting the right supports in the right places to keep the structure up. You can't do everything after all but your team can.
Take five and a laugh.
A while back, I was managing a product that I ended up ordering too much product to unload with two people...by A LOT. So there I was with another team member unloading the shipment into our warehouse. After about two hours of unloading, I had to run to the bathroom and when I did, I passed by a vending machine and I’ve got to tell you, that Twix Bar and red Gatorade really turned that bad day around. Just simply taking five minutes with the people you are working with to have a break, connect on a human level and yes...to laugh at yourself for the mistake you made, makes the work gone wrong a little more bearable.
Listen to your team.
While you may think that you know everything, and you may know a lot, your team knows things that you don’t and they see things that you don’t. Their perspective is literally completely different than yours. This is a benefit, not a struggle. Use this to your advantage and not as a discouragement. I have seen leaders not receive input from people at “lower” hierarchical levels within companies and the folks at the bottom yet they often times have insight that the folks at the top don’t have. At the very least, have a listen to your team and not just a fake one...NO, a real in depth listen. You might just learn some insight you never would have thought about.
Take the blame.
When work goes wrong and it’s because of a decision that you made, own it. Say you are sorry and work to make it never happen again.
Easier said than done, I know. This brings me back to the beginning of this blog thinking through your day. When things go wrong, the instinct is to avoid them and not think about them because our mistake might reveal that we are HUMAN. The only way you are going to get better at work is to think about it, receive feedback, and work on it. The only way that happens is if you take a few minutes to reflect on what happened, why it happened, and what you could have done to keep it from happening and welcoming others in to offer you feedback. Here’s where the most crucial step comes in. You have to place a mental note in your mind to pause when you find yourself in a position where you might make a decision that made your work go wrong last time. Now the rubber meets the road, are you going to make another poor decision that will make your work go wrong or are you going to make a new decision?
If this brought you value or you just have questions, please feel free to reach out. You can reach us at thelevco@gmail.com or you can find us on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram @thelevco.
Be well!