Everyone makes mistakes. Everyone.
Dealing with a mistake the wrong way can threaten the success of your startup.
In general, you can approach a mistake in three ways:
- You can punish the mistake maker
- You can hide from it
- You can learn from it
Punishing the offender for making a stupid mistake is the worst approach. In a startup, belittling, humiliating or firing the mistake makers will create a culture where no one is willing to make a decision or take action for fear of getting punished. Your startup will fall into a corporate mindset, but without the processes to match.
Your staff will wait for you to make a decision before anyone takes action. You’ll stop evolving, growing and finding new ways to bring in money or cut down costs. Your startup will stagnate.
Hiding from a mistake and hoping that it will go away doesn’t paralyse your business culture like punishing the mistake makers. Your startup will however keep on making the same mistakes over and over again.
You’ll keep having to apologise for the server going down or for the software crashing. You’ll constantly have to make excuses why the proposal wasn’t sent or why the quality you promised wasn’t delivered. You’ll keep losing clients and money.
Your clients will eventually leave… along with your star employees.
When facing a mistake you should act like an air crash investigator. Look for the black box, analyse the data, and ensure that the same mistake doesn’t happen again by addressing the source and by implementing the necessary processes.
Get your partners and employees into the habit of openly discussing their mistakes and the mistakes of others. It is not an easy thing to do (especially for the mistake maker).
Your startup culture will evolve. Your team will stop fearing or hiding from mistakes. Rather they will start embracing them as learning experiences that make your startup stronger and more resilient.