JT & Dale Talk Jobs: Righting a wrong in the workplace

Dear J.T. & Dale: I recently was put in charge of a project where I had to build out a timeline of deliverables. I mistakenly got a couple of dates wrong. As a result, some on my team submitted things at the wrong time. My boss called them out on it. None of them said anything to him about the fact that I messed up the dates. Now they are all giving me the cold shoulder. What can I do to make things right? — Emily

J.T.: You first need to go to your boss and candidly explain that you made the mistake and they didn’t. I would also say that you didn’t realize it and didn’t know how to bring it up at the time. I would then go and make personal apologies to each of the individuals that were called out by your boss. Let them know that you’ve gone to management and taken ownership of the mistake, and explain how you’ve learned from it. Mistakes happen, and anytime you realize them, it’s a sign of character when you can take ownership.

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DALE: Your question got me thinking about my own days as a corporate employee and about one of my own scheduling blunders. A team of high-priced consultants was in town, and they took a few of us to dinner the night before coming to the offices. During the evening chitchat, I asked what brought them to town. They laughed ... and then they didn’t. We all soon realized that they were there for a presentation that I was supposed to schedule and that I’d forgotten about. I instantly started calling everyone included in the meeting and told them how I screwed up. The next morning, I went from office to office apologizing. The meeting went off as (not) planned, and everyone made fun of old Dale. However, to my surprise, the upshot was that it brought me closer to some of the executives I’d hardly known. Here’s the point: A mistake is an opportunity for a skillful recovery, and the result is a net positive. Research shows that a customer with a problem that the company resolved gracefully will be more loyal than a customer who never had a problem. So, here’s your chance to go back and make that graceful recovery.