Encouragement is a Necessary Management Instinct
Twists and turns happen when completing the myriad projects and tasks on your plate and they can throw you off your game. Time constraints, deadlines, or a constant reprioritization of your work can leave you feeling like you spent the day in a blender! With so much going on every day, and the stress that goes along with that, bad things can happen—a misdirected email, misspoken words to a colleague, a truly miserable meeting with a client, a missed deadline, a poor decision on an initiative leading to higher than budgeted expenses.
The truth is that things don’t always go as you planned. You are not in control of everything and mistakes are going to happen. How you deal with this and how you are supported influences how you feel in the moment and long after.
Encouragement from your boss can come in many ways that can help you push through to the other side.
Putting the mistake into perspective. Who will this affect? What’s the impact? Understanding the scope of the impact helps you and your boss determine the next best steps.
Identifying exactly where things went off the rails so that you can isolate what led to the problem. Did you receive mixed messages about how to proceed? Was the communication clear heading into the situation? Were you distracted with pressing deadlines? Did you receive a disturbing call, text or email right before making a big decision?
Reminding you of your strengths and how you can apply them to situations that feel like failure. Leaning into the many applications of your strengths is one of the easiest ways to move forward.
Discussing ways to lean into your relationships with others to help remedy the situation. A collaborative effort can ease the feeling of being on your own when things get rough. And you’ll have someone to celebrate with when you turn the corner.
Offering assistance as necessary and appropriate. All mistakes and problems are not for your boss to fix. Their job is to help bring clarity, empower, support, and encourage you to your success and to ensure that the road ahead is as clear as possible. A reminder that “you’ve got this,” may be all the encouragement you need.
Sharing a story about a mistake they made. This humanizes the situation and lets you know that difficult things can happen to anyone and you can overcome them.
Checking in with you along the way to resolution to hear how things are going, redirect as necessary, and applaud your success when it’s all said and done.
If your boss hasn’t offered this type of help to you, or worse considers you to be singularly at fault and you are subsequently penalized, bolster up the courage to suggest to THEM ways that they can be helpful to you. A positive response from your manager is what good management looks like. As opposed to popular belief, and often behavior, managers don't know everything. Use this as a "learning moment" for your manager and help build their management instincts.
Mistakes build muscle and they teach us things. Sometimes painfully and with a few sleepless nights but know that you have everything you need to overcome them and if you don’t, ask for help.