30 Career Management Tips — Owning your mistakes

This month, I’m providing a career management tip-a-day (along with other posts) to help you trigger your own career management activities.

Today’s tip: Owning your mistakes.

When it comes to scandals, it’s often not the original crime that puts the person in jail: it’s the cover-up.

Examples: Richard Nixon covering up Watergate. Scooter Libby covering up Phlame-gate. Martha Stewart covering up stock trades.

Business, on the other hand, should be all about making mistakes — fail early and often is my motto; it’s gets to learning that much faster.

But much of business is not about letting people make mistakes: it’s about blame. For a cubicle warrior, mistakes can be deadly if not handled correctly. But there is hope: owning up to your mistakes by letting your peers and manager know about the mistake early is a strength.

Mistakes are tough. They are tough to own up to and tough to correct. Focused career management professionals with strong personal brands know this and go after mistakes just like triumphs. You should too.

Actions on how to handle mistakes made at work is explained over at 45 Things by Anita Bruzzese. Take a look — and be emotionally mature enough to use her advice the next time you make a mistake at work.

Scot

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