Why is there a fear of making mistakes at work?

Making mistakes at work can be scary. This is especially true if you’re the sole breadwinner of your household or rely on your position for everyday expenses like rent. When the stakes are high, it’s normal to worry about what-if scenarios when something goes wrong. In rare cases, extreme perfectionism is diagnosed as atelophobia which is the extreme fear of making mistakes.

While these are all valid reactions, making mistakes at work can actually improve your relationship with management and provide opportunities for self-improvement. But first things first, you have to adjust your mindset and overcome those fear-based feelings that are keeping you paralyzed.

Overcoming the anxiety of making mistakes at work

If you’re like most people, you probably feel a knot in your stomach when something goes wrong at work. It could have been a minor mishap that no one noticed or a major mistake that cost your company a huge sum of money.

Regardless of what happened, overcoming the anxiety of making mistakes at work is the first step to finding a solution. If you skip this part of the process, you may find yourself covering up issues that could have been fixed, making things worse long-term, or even getting found out by your boss. Follow these steps to overcoming work-related stress and bounce back stronger than before after you’ve messed up:

Step 1: Process your emotions

It’s natural to feel frustrated and embarrassed when something goes wrong at work. But, after a few seconds, the feeling should pass and you can begin to think logically. If it doesn’t happen quickly, take some time to process these emotions. Talk it out with a trusted friend, voice journal about it in your car, or take a walk outside to get some fresh air before starting fresh.

Step 2: Keep perspective

If you make an error at work, it’s likely not a life-or-death situation. Most of the time, it can be corrected or resolved quickly. If you don’t find the right perspective, your mind may get too focused on the negative consequences of your mistake, which can trigger more errors in the future.

Step 3: Acknowledge the mistake

If you need to apologize for an error, do it quickly and politely. If it’s a small issue, a sentence or two via email or chat messenger is enough to make amends. If it’s a larger issue, consider holding a meeting or giving your manager a quick phone call. Also, make sure to tell your boss about how you intend to prevent this mistake in the future.

Step 4: Review your response

It’s so easy to get distracted by all your other goals and projects that you can forget about anything else that went wrong before you got to this point. Taking the time to review your response to the mistake helps you improve in case it ever happens again.

Step 5: Practice self-careStep 6: Evaluate your own performance

The easiest way to earn people’s trust is to consistently deliver stellar work. Even though you may have failed in the past, there’s still time to move on and create a successful and rich working life. Remember, a mistake or two over the course of an otherwise successful period will not make or break your career.

How should managers react to mistakes at work?

Managers are responsible for reacting to and assisting employees with mistakes at work. Even in the most high-pressure situations, doing so with care is not only good for morale but will prevent similar mistakes in the future. How a manager reacts to mistakes at work can make all the difference between transformational leadership and losing otherwise great employees.

Great managers can also recognize when they themselves have made mistakes. Before you approach a team member, take a close look at yourself to see if you’re really worried about their work. If so, what do you think about their performance? Who is responsible for their work so far?

You may find that you’ve contributed to the environment, the process, or the miscommunication that made the mistake possible. Reflecting on this ahead of time will relieve everyone of playing the blame game and instead solve the problem from a fair and level-headed place.

Additionally, managers should make sure that each mistake is a teaching moment. It may be hard but don’t try to fix the problem. Instead, frame it as an opportunity to improve and develop.

When approaching an employee who has made a mistake, start by being curious about it. Ask questions about what happened and what their perspective is on the situation. Use active listening skills when speaking to team members, as it will let them know that you are paying attention.

They may fess up immediately. If they take the blame for something that wasn’t their fault, which is pretty common, address that. If they don’t admit to making a mistake, approach the situation with care and focus on the issue, not placing blame.

Be proactive.

Once you are aware of the mistake you have made, try to get in front of the situation before it spirals. Being proactive about addressing whatever took place demonstrates your awareness of the problem and relieves others from the potential discomfort of bringing it to your attention.

Take my former client Sabina, a finance executive, who began to hear whispers that people on her team found her condescending and overly controlling of their work. Rather than dismissing the comments and letting the situation escalate, she immediately set up 1:1’s with each team member to solicit their feedback and learn more. She then called a meeting to thank her team members for their feedback, express her remorse, and share her plan for remedying the situation.

By being proactive, Sabina was able to gain critical feedback for her improvement as a leader and nip her team’s growing dissatisfaction before it escalated further. Even if you are not in a leadership position, you can make an effort to reach out to those impacted by your actions, hear them out, and share a plan for improvement moving forward.

A real-life Example Of What To Do When You Keep Making Mistakes

Identify the Mistake: You are in charge of your company’s social media channels and repeatedly publish posts with spelling errors, broken links, and content that is disputed or corrected in the comment section. Customers and company leaders are beginning to take notice and you fear it could cost you your job.

Investigate the Mistake: The company is relatively new to social media, which means there are very few if any, processes written. While you were uncomfortable creating a post without your leader’s approval, you did it anyway as no one said any differently.

Downloading a digital writing assistance tool that detects spelling, punctuation, and other common errors, such as Grammarly, and use it on every social postPlanning to send the social post to your leader at least 48 hours in advance of its planning publication to approve the content and double-check its functionality.Turning off notifications for emails, instant messages, texts, and Zoom calls, so you do not get sidetracked or attempt to multitask while posting on social media.Using a process management tool, such as ClickUp, to create a checklist that documents these actions. Not only will this ensure you and your leader have proof of due diligence if a problem occurs, but it will allow the process to be passed on as the team grows or changes.

Source:

https://www.wrike.com/blog/how-to-handle-mistakes-at-work/
https://hbr.org/2021/11/you-made-a-big-mistake-at-work-what-should-you-do
https://www.niagarainstitute.com/blog/i-keep-making-mistakes-at-work