Soar to Success April 2020

T wo words – extremely simple yet so difficult for so many people. “I’m sorry!” No matter the level you are in your company, understanding the importance of a simple and heart-felt apology cannot be understated. The higher up you go, the more important it is to understand thevalueof anapology.We allmake mistakes. Yep, everyone. Fromthemaintenance person to the CEO, EVERYONE at one time or another makes a mistake. It’s what happens AFTER someone makes a mistake that matters. When people (especially leaders) refuse to admit to any weakness, mistake or error of judgment, their ability to be trusted by their people plummets. Worse yet are those individuals who not only don’t admit their mistakes and apologize, but actually look to Just Say You Are Sorry By Megan Patton place blame on someone else. This creates a culture of mistrust, fear and excuses. This does not make for a healthy organization. Especially when it originateswithoneof theorganization’s leaders. It also sends a message that mistakes are something to be hidden; mistakes should be denied; mistakes will put an employee at risk of being fired. We had a client organization recently that was in chaos over a leader’s unwillingness to admit a mistake and accept responsibility. The employees (the ones affected by the mistake), who were client facing workers, all admitted to a new-found lack of trust in the organization, and several expressed a desire to leave the company. Of course, this situation took up a significant amount of time to get the leader to