Why mistakes are stepping stones on the way to success
30 May 2022
We learn from our mistakes.
It’s one of the first things we are taught as children. We do something bad and, if we are lucky, our understanding elders will point out the errors of our ways and explain where we went wrong.
It’s the way we learn to negotiate the world, and, without a few errors, we’d learn precious little.
And yet, by the time we enter the world of work, the idea of making mistakes has a huge degree of toxicity associated with it.
But if you want your business to thrive and grow, it’s important to accept that the mistakes both you and your employees make are not failures, but stepping stones on the way to success.
For many in business, mistakes are something to be avoided at all costs – and swept under the carpet when they do happen. This culture means employees are often too nervous to speak up when things go wrong, or when a mistake has been made, frequently compounding the initial problem.
But rather than ignoring them, we should encourage mistakes to be recognised and analysed so that everyone in an organisation can learn from them.
This is not to say that we should encourage a slipshod approach to work where carelessness is the order of the day. Far from it. But by creating an environment where staff are encouraged to try new things and where mistakes are not penalised as soon as they happen, there is much to gain.
Some of the positive benefits of creating such an open culture include:
- More honesty: Staff will be more concerned with learning from and fixing mistakes in an open culture than with trying to hide them from their managers. By accepting errors as a part of daily life, you can create an atmosphere in which trust, honesty and openness flourish and staff feel more positive and engaged by their work.
- More happiness: Staff who are not looking over their shoulder all the time wondering if they are about to be punished for some mistake are naturally happier. Happier staff are generally more productive, more collaborative, and more loyal.
- More development: By creating a culture in which learning is valued, you give all your employees the opportunity to develop professionally, learn and improve their knowledge. This builds still further staff satisfaction and loyalty, and also increases the overall knowledge base in your organisation.
- Fewer mistakes: This might sound counter-intuitive, but by encouraging staff not to worry about making errors, you are likely to reduce the likelihood of them occurring. The best way to guarantee staff make mistakes is to make them paranoid about it and so stressed that they cannot function properly.
If you think you have a workplace in which your staff are cowed by the fear of failure rather than liberated by the freedom to learn, it may well be time to act.
Businesses which obsess with failure tend towards micro-management which creates a lack of innovation and fosters an atmosphere of worry. On the other hand, those which regard mistakes as a natural part of the working environment and seek to learn from them, can develop a much more inclusive and collaborative culture.
This is not just good for the staff, but excellent for the business itself.
If you want more support and help in developing a positive culture in your workplace, just get in touch for your free consultation. The button on this page is a great place to start the ball rolling.
