Main Idea
Have you ever made a mistake and when you tried to fix it you actually compounded the mistake? Why are certain clients or projects jinxed?
Expansion of Idea
My son and I had lunch yesterday at a new restaurant near my office. His sandwich came without hot sauce which it was supposed to have. We mentioned it to the waitress who told the manager. He brought out the sauce about five minutes later. He apologized and said that the sandwich was on the restaurant. The food was good, the waitress was friendly and the restaurant will be out of business in 6 months. The manager did not come back and check on the food. In addition, he failed to take the charge off the bill. It wasn’t a big deal but it shows the lack of follow through.
When we make mistakes and all of us make them, it seems to me that those mistakes seem to attract more mistakes as we are trying to fix the first mistake. Mistakes give us a chance to raise our service and instead we tend to go further in the hole. Toyota’s service recovery with the floor mats is a great example. If they had owned up to the problems right away, the whole issue would have gone away in a matter of days or maybe weeks. Instead, it became a discussion for way too long and ended up costing them a lot of money.
I recently read a book called “Integrity” by Henry Cloud. In it, he says that one of the characteristics of successful people is that they embrace negative issues. He talks about one executive who leans into the negative problems. When we actually lean into problems and address them completely and quickly, our businesses can grow. People respect us and choose to do business with firms that deal with issues. When we dismiss the problems or do not focus on them, then our businesses will die. Do you want to grow or do you want to die?
Points to ponder:
How does my firm handle problems?
Do I know what to do when there is a problem?
Do I need additional training?
Do I lean into problems or do I run away?