Benefits of Making a Mistake

It is annoying when you make a mistake, but it doesn't have to be the end of a career. Indeed, if everyone was punished for the mistakes they made, the turnover in some industries would be incredibly high, In fact, there are actually quite a few benefits of making a mistake.

Mistakes Force You to Learn

Every mistake is a learning opportunity for you and your colleagues. Mistakes also highlight your skill level and indicate where you need improvement. Mistakes are relatively common in business, so it's usually not the mistake that gets people fired. Typically, it is the failure to learn from mistakes that forces people out of business. If you're managing a team, mistakes show what each team member is capable of and give you an indication of how different people can complement each other.

Mistakes Improve Processes

Business processes are usually intended to be relatively infallible, so when you make a mistake when following a business process, it can highlight flaws within that process. This gives you the opportunity to challenge and improve that process. This can look great on a resume, as it shows how you had a problem and dealt with it to the benefit of the company.

Mistakes Force Change

It's often said that necessity is the mother of all invention, and in many cases that's true. When you make a mistake, it can force you to look at other options to avoid making that mistake again. Mistakes can also reveal pain points for clients and give you an opportunity to shine. Sadly, in some cases, another person's mistake can be blamed on the wrong person. If this happens to you, it shows you that you're working for a company that does not deserve you. In many cases, this change can be to your benefit. Such scapegoating is usually a sign of deep internal divisions, and it's never good when someone else makes a mistake and cannot accept responsibility.

Mistakes Keep You Grounded

It's worth remembering that everybody makes a mistake once in a while, and being reminded that you are human from time to time might just give you a little more humility. The boss who thinks he is completely infallible is often a target of derision — and for good reason. Generally, those bosses have high turnovers because they refuse to admit that they are wrong, and this often rankles with those underneath them.

In an ideal world, nobody would ever make a mistake, but that's never going to happen. The key takeaway is to learn from all of your mistakes and strive to improve yourself. In addition, you should acknowledge that you and your team are fallible. It's okay — mistakes are simply learning opportunities in disguise.

Photo courtesy of Sira Anamwong at FreeDigitalPhotos.net