It’s Hard to Be Nice When People Make So Many Mistakes
You have no doubt found yourself in a situation that you have been told you made a mistake. You were given a list of instructions and you missed something. You forgot something. You simply didn’t complete something properly.
When you know that you made a mistake, it can be a disappointment for you because you probably intended to do it right.
In some (or most) cases, the mistake isn’t devastating. In many (hopefully most) cases, the over site or omission was not intentional.
Quite often, the real problem is that the instructions were simply not very clear.
Think about how you respond to your errors being pointed out as you read this.
When someone you have requested a task from has missed something, there are four things that you can do.
- Do it yourself
- Ask the person to do it again
- Find someone else to do it
- Let it go
The problem commonly associated with these approaches is the attitude you use when making the request.
So many times the natural assumption, when a mistake is made, is that either the person asked to do the task is either incompetent or malicious. The reality is that usually when a mistake is made, the instructions are simply not as clear as you might think.
When someone is asked to complete something and there is ambiguity in the instructions, that person will fill in the blanks. In fact, often, that person doesn’t even realize there are blanks. That person will assume that he or she understands completely the requirement and fulfill accordingly.
You can end up deflating the person quite a bit when he or she returns to you a completed task that, in his or her mind, was done very well, when you immediately tell the person that everything is all wrong.
When you assign someone a task, the most effective way to prevent this problem is to have the instructions in writing. If the person makes a mistake, check your instructions and provide further clarification.
Now, if someone truly is incompetent, you’ll need to find other resources. But, don’t naturally assume that the instructions you left are perfect.
Remember that you have more experience understanding yourself than anyone else does.
Corey Smith is the president of Tribute Media a web development firm providing high performing, industry specific websites. He is a businessman, writer, technology fanatic, graphic designer and web developer. His greatest passion is teaching, consulting and speaking.
You can find him on Twitter, FaceBook, FriendFeed, and LinkedIn.
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Well, having never made any
Well, having never made any mistakes, I find this article difficult to understand let alone empathize with.
Oh, and when I went to leave my pride outside the door, I could not find a big enough coat hanger...
Great set of posts!
Well articulated Corey.
Well articulated Corey.
Wasn't it Covey that coined the phrase, "Seek First to Understand, Then to be Understood"?
I have learned that asking the person to repeat back to you, without making them feel stupid, the requested task is very helpful in avoiding any disconnects. I often use the question, "I am not sure if I explained that as well as I could have, can you tell me what you just heard?" I like the question much better than, "Does that make sense?" The knee jerk answer to this is always yes regardless if it did or not.
(Can you please help me teach K.S. to write as articulately and concise as you do?)
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