Thursday, 16 February 2012

Owning your mistakes…


A long, long time ago, in a distant galaxy.... oh no, hang on wrong post.... 

A long , long time ago when I was in that precarious stage of still being in the last year of school and having not made any decisions about what I wanted to do with my life (yep, nothing has changed there, still no clue just a lot older now!) I started work part time at my local vets … as time went by I progressed from being the general dogsbody to being an assistant nursing tech – which included helping with everything from cleaning out kennels to assisting in surgery.

I loved every minute of it, even the heartbreaking ones, and though working in a veterinary surgery was ultimately not what happened with my life I did learn a great deal which my current family of assorted critters still benefit from.  But there was one far more important thing that I learnt from my then boss, a very gruff Yorkshire man who took no prisoners and wouldn’t tolerate anything less than exceptional standards from his staff....

His advice…. If you make a mistake, own it. 

Now whilst this advice was given to me when working in a field where patients lives could be at risk if you screwed up, it’s something that has always stuck with me and something I’ve done ever since.  I’ve taken this through several places of work and for some reason it always seems to surprise my bosses that I will put my hands up and say when I’ve done something wrong.

Making mistakes is just part of being human.  I know that I am not perfect, I do screw things up sometimes and when I do I am not going to lie and hide it, or blame someone else.

I think that if I was ever asked to pass on to someone else the most useful piece of advice that I was ever given this would be it…. Yes, sometimes mistakes cost you, but ultimately not as much as the lies used to cover them up.

There is another side to this though…….as has recently been learnt by someone I thought was a friend…….. never ever try to blame me for mistakes that I have not made, it will not end well.

No comments:

Post a Comment