Encourage Your Team To Make Mistakes

"Say what? Why the heck would I want to encourage my team to make mistakes?"

As I’ve been working with local businesses, one of the things I’ve come to see is this:

There are a lot of businesses out there that have a culture of perfectionism.

And perfectionism could be the very reason why their team is struggling.

A culture of perfectionism means that people feel like they have to do it right. The first time. All the time.

And when they mess it up or make a mistake, it becomes a BIG deal.

They become so afraid of making mistakes that they can end up:

constantly second-guessing themselves

getting caught up in every little detail to the point, they don't get things completed within established deadlines

relying on other people (you?) to give them the correct answers or tell them what to do before taking action

quitting because they are too overwhelmed and stressed out about it all

When it's not OK to make mistakes people can't do their best work. And that is a problem.

Now perfectionism can be sneaky...as business owners, we may not even realize that we have created a culture of perfectionism!

Perfectionism sneaks in when we do things like:

Take over when someone makes a mistake. When our response is "just let me fix it,"...instead of empowering them to fix the error on their own.

Expect them to 'hit the ground running' the day we start working together... and then question why things aren't happening as quickly as we would like. (It takes time for people to get to know you and your business.)

Let someone go the moment something is done wrong, or it feels like something is missing vs. digging deeper to see if it can be resolved (others on the team will see this happening too).

Get outwardly mad or frustrated when someone makes a mistake. It's OK to feel angry or frustrated (we are all human!) but to lead and respond from that place is damaging, especially when it happens regularly.

Hover over their shoulder and question their every move, with things like, "why are you doing it that way? I would have done it this way"...

Question their recommendations or advice, especially when you've hired them to bring those recommendations to you.

"So, does this mean I just let mistakes slide?"

Heck no! We don't want mistakes to happen regularly, nor do we want to just let things slide when they do.

Encouraging mistakes means that we create a culture when two things are true:

It's OK to make mistakes

We EMPOWER our team to fix their mistakes

When we create a culture where it's OK to make mistakes, a few things start to happen. People start taking more action because they aren't getting caught up in "I have to do it right!!" They move faster. They become more creative and innovative. They are more engaged in their work. They may also bring more caring to their work (because they are no longer afraid of judgment or having to operate in defensive mode all the time.)

And when they do make a mistake - because, let's be honest, we all do - then they are empowered to fix it. To explore options and bring a solution to the table. To get support from you or other team members as needed. To do what it takes to make it right AND prevent it from happening again in the future.

I don’t mind if someone on my team makes a mistake - what I do care about is if they are willing to own it and fix it. Many times when a mistake is made, it helps improve the organization. So here's to making more mistakes! So that we may move forward faster & together.

Encourage Your Team To Make Mistakes

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