I used to wonder how my boss gets to know about my mistakes before I highlight the error to him myself?
Yes, I agree that some colleagues like to highlight my error, just to show that they are better than I am. It's fine, I am not competing with them anyway, so I don't care.
I don't care because I know what I know, I know what I don't know and I am proud of my achievements so far and am willing to work hard to achieve more in the future...
Coming back to the point --- my boss gets information about my mistakes before I take it to him as I delay taking the bad news to him as soon as it happened or discovered. When I delay my communication, I give others the chance to carry the information for me, hence Bad News Travels Fast.
Why do I delay informing my boss of my errors? There are 2 reasons....
- I do not want to highlight my errors to my boss, because it will make me look bad.
- When I highlight the error to my boss, he will call me dumb, he will be angry and yell at me.
Reason # 1 is being UNPROFESSIONAL.
Reason # 2 is PROCRASTINATION. I just need a reason to postpone taking the issue up with my boss because I am afraid of his reactions.
The best approach is ....
- Be fearless and let the boss know of the error as soon as it is discovered.
- Apologize for the error.
- Give assurance that this will never happen again.
- Figure out the Root Cause of the error and define preventive actions.
- Go back to boss and explain why the error happened and how you plan to prevent such errors in the future.
Don't hide your mistakes, because someone else will discover it eventually and highlight the error. If this happens, it will be humiliating.
Don't be scared of reactions - if you have made the mistake, be fearless and admit it, be graceful and accept the punishment. Worst case you'll get sacked, no one can take your life from you, you can always start over!
Be the one to communicate your own bad news first....
