Using Failure To Your Advantage

Break The Bad News Yourself >> if you’ve made a mistake, don’t cross your fingers and hope that no one will notice, because someone is going to – it’s inevitable. When someone else points out your failure, that one failure turns into two. If you stay quiet, people are going to wonder why you didn’t say something, and they’re likely to attribute this to either cowardice or ignorance.

Offer An Explanation, But Don’t Make Excuses >> owning your mistakes can actually enhance your image. It shows confidence, accountability and integrity. Just be sure to stick to the facts. We lost the account because I missed the deadline is a reason. We lost the account because my dog was sick all weekend and that made me miss the deadline is an excuse.

Have A Plan For Fixing Things >> owning up to a mistake is one thing, but you can’t end it there. What you do next is critical. Instead of standing there, waiting for someone else to clean up your mess, offer your own solutions. It’s even better if you can tell your boss the speicic steps that you’ve already taken to get things back on track.

Have A plan For Prevention >> in addition to having a plan for fixing things, you should also have a plan for how you’ll avoid making the same mistakes in the future. That’s the best way to reassure people that good things will come out of your failure.

Get Back On The Horse >> it’s important that you don’t let failure make you timid. That’s a mindset that sucks you in and handicaps you every time you slip up. Make enough time to absorb the lessons of your failure and as soon as you’ve done that, get right back out there and try again. Waiting only prolongs bad feelings and increases the chance that you’ll lose your nerve. Your attitude when facing failure is just as important as the actions you take. Using failure to your advantage requires resilience and mental strength, both of which are hallmarks of emotional intelligence.