I have learnt a major lesson in that I should not do some work at home when I’ve had a very busy day at work, then a busy evening getting my son to bed, because it’s a potential disaster waiting to happen.
I had a deadline which I couldn’t finish at work so thought I would finish it off at home. So about 8.30pm I logged onto my computer, dialled up to work and started doing what I had to do. I thought things looked a bit strange and then belatedly realised I was publishing too much up to our website.
When I realised this I stopped it and with no way to go about finding out how much I might have done I went to bed and didn’t sleep that well I must admit.
When I got to work the next morning I immediately rang up my colleague and admitted my mistake and started the ball rolling to amend it. I also had to make some phone calls to other colleagues to fess up and get things fixed. Very embarrassing to be sure. It’s really not been too bad and the only people I’ve really inconvenienced are some IT colleagues who have to delete some materials from the web server that shouldn’t be there.
It got me to thinking that I could have kept quiet about it but that’s not the kind of person I am because if left alone it could have turned around and belatedly bitten me on the bum and this belated bite would have been a lot worse than what I had to face.
I Googled ‘admitting mistakes’ and found some sites that made me feel a bit better.
This one about Gaining respect by admitting mistakes. This is more about leaders gaining said respect and the scenario is slightly different but interesting all the same and something more leaders should take note of.
This one is about the Power of admitting mistakes.
Even Parents can admit mistakes to their children. I have done this one.
I’ve found that if someone around me has made a mistake I would rather them tell me than hide it because I don’t like being lied to, either blatantly or by omission. Cliche coming, ‘What’s good for the goose is good for the gander’.
In my case just admitting my mistake will not do for me. I’m going to buy a packet of choccy frogs to put in the internal mail to my IT colleagues as a sweetener.
