Katie Roberts Career Consulting

You’re about to miss an important project deadline so what do you do? You could bury your head in the sand, make up an elaborate excuse, or lie to cover your tracks – we definitely wouldn’t recommend that approach. But there’s no need to panic either. It’s important to own up to your lapse and offer a solution to the problem.

There’s a saying that the most successful people in business are the ones who’ve failed the most. It makes sense that the more you try and fail, the more you will succeed. If you never put yourself in a position to fail by trying new and innovative approaches, chances are you won’t fail – but you won’t achieve any outstanding success either.

Here’s our tips to manage failure in your work:

• Take responsibility: Whether it’s a client, a colleague, your boss or a partner that your oversight will affect, it’s important to own up to what’s happened as quickly as possible. As soon as you identify that you’ve messed up or you’re going to miss a deadline, make sure to advise everyone who is affected. This way you can quickly put some plans in place to mitigate potential damage as much as possible and come up with a plan to address the issue. When you take responsibility for a mistake, those involved will be able to trust you to address the issue and/or prevent future damage.
• Consider the best way to deliver the news: Depending on what the consequences of your oversight are, this will dictate how your news should be delivered. If it’s a one off and the project doesn’t have broader business impact, it might be appropriate to send an email. Anything affecting a client, revenue, or larger piece of work might be better delivered via phone or in person. Gauge the situation and seriousness of the impact, then decide on your best course of action.
• Offer a solution: Provide information to all the involved parties on what you plan to do to address the issue. Make sure you include everyone who will be affected and provide detailed information regarding the steps you will take to ensure the project gets back on track, or the ways in which you’ll address the issue.
• Set a new deadline: Identify and provide timelines and deadline dates of when you will be able to provide a remedy. Make sure it’s realistic and give yourself enough time to resolve – perhaps with a little leeway that might enable you to over-achieve your target this time. Under promise and over deliver is a much better approach – particularly when you’re in this position in the first place. You really don’t want to have to go back and ask for another extension so consider this stage carefully.
• Promise it won’t happen again: Accepting responsibility and conceiving a solution for the problem is the first step. Making assurances that you won’t let it happen again is vital. If it’s the first time you’ve erred, then the person on the receiving end should understand – but if it’s an ongoing issue, they might not be so easygoing. Likewise, saying it won’t happen again is fine, but backing that up with strong reasons as to why it won’t happen again is also important.

Let’s face it, this is never going to be a great situation to be in. The affected parties may be annoyed, upset, and/or angry but that’s to be expected. You’d probably feel the same way. Assuming this isn’t a common occurrence, and you’ve taken responsibility to ensure it’s fixed as quickly as possible, you should soon be forgiven. Take a deep breath and move on.

Are you interested in obtaining some career advice? If so our career advisors are experts in their field and provide comprehensive Career Counselling Services. We also have experienced writers who provide professional Resume and LinkedIn Profile writing services designed for people who want to make employers sit up and take notice.