Leadership Caffeine—The Trust Building Power of Second Chances

The Leadership Caffeine series is approaching 200 installments strong and is dedicated to every aspiring or experienced leader seeking ideas, insights or just a jolt of energy to keep pushing forward. Thanks for being along for the journey!

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If humans are in the picture, mistakes will occur. Whether the mistake is an error in judgment, a result of incomplete planning or, due to inexperience with the task at hand, your team members will make mistakes. Your response to a mistake sets the tone for the next stage of your relationship.

Respond as many managers do with anger and the basis of the relationship will be fear. Fear demoralizes individual and teams, inhibits expression and experimentation and is a key ingredient and catalyst for the creation of a toxic workplace.

Ignore the mistake as many managers do who struggle providing timely, constructive feedback, and you’ll be silently endorsing substandard performance.

Alternatively, tackle the mistake head on in a constructive, calm but clear manner, and then offer a chance to strengthen performance, and you’ll take a positive step forward in promoting learning and engendering trust.

Don’t Cry Over Spilt Creosote:

Earlier in my life as a college student, I worked in a chemical packaging factory during summer and winter breaks. One of my many roles over time was to take pallets of finished, packaged solvents from the end of the filling line out into inventory. This included 5-gallon pails of nasty chemicals including creosote, linseed oil, lacquer thinner, mineral spirits and many others. After a few weeks of mastering the process of loading these completed pallets into inventory (stacked two high), I grew careless with the forklift, caught another pallet and created a domino effect of falling 5-gallon pails of chemicals that was spectacular and spectacularly dangerous.

The procedures for a chemical spill included a full work stoppage across the plant and all hands on deck to contain, clean and resolve the damage. I cost the facility an hour of labor for the full crew, and a few thousand dollars in inventory loss. Horrified at my mistake and horribly embarrassed, I approached the supervisor who had been overseeing the clean-up, offered to make restitution and to wrap up my employment. He looked at me, asked me what I had learned, and after what must have been a satisfactory answer, offered, “I expect to see you back on the forklift first thing in the morning. You won’t make this mistake again.”

I gave 150% for this manager for the balance of that season and was invited back every summer until I graduated.

5 Ideas to Turn Team Member Mistakes into Performance and Trust Building Exercises:

1. Stay calm. You might be angry inside, but it’s critical to show a calm demeanor in the face of a major mistake. The situation is emotionally turbocharged already without you adding fuel to the fire. Your calm, concerned demeanor will allow everyone to move beyond recognition and towards resolution.

2. Grab a mop. In some situations, it pays to help mop up the mess. Whether the mistake is like my chemical spill above or something a bit less “explosive,” some situations merit a bit of leading by doing or at least, leading by observing. Your attention and calm participation showcases the importance of the situation and sends a message that you care enough to remain involved.

3. Ask and listen, don’t lecture. Let the situation cool down and then choose a quiet spot to discuss what went wrong and to assess lessons learned. Focusing on the lessons learned takes some of the fear out of the occasion for the individual making the mistake and telegraphs that your primary interest is on strengthening performance in the future.

4. Encourage the rider to get back on the horse. Take a note from my supervisor above and once the discussion has wrapped, indicate that you expect the individual to be right back at it the next day or at the next occasion.

5. Don’t be naïve. I love giving second chances for genuine mistakes in pursuit of doing the job, however, be aware that some individuals prey on managers they deem as soft. Use your good judgment to separate the genuine mistakes in pursuit of performance from those committed by individuals who don’t care and don’t intent on improving.

The Bottom-Line for Now:

Second chances are the greatest learning experiences we can provide to those we are responsible for in the workplace. If you’ve chosen the right team members, the point in time when they make the biggest mistakes is also the point in time when great learning occurs. Manage this properly and you’ll build trust, promote loyalty and frankly, find your life a lot less stressful than your mercurial counterparts.

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More Professional Development Reads from Art Petty:

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For more ideas on professional development-one sound bite at a time, check out Art’s latest book: Leadership Caffeine-Ideas to Energize Your Professional Development.