The Juggling Act: When You Drop the Ball

As busy entrepreneurs we juggle a lot of balls. Client requests, team member demands, family demands…the list goes on and on and on.

When you have so many balls in the air, eventually you’re going to drop one. It happened to me today. I received an email from a client asking me if I sent a promo email out last week. I created the template, but for whatever reason, the email never got sent.

So what do you do in a situation where you’ve dropped a ball…an important one and now you have to face the music?

1. Apologize. First and foremost, apologize. You screwed up. It happens. We’re human. We are not perfect and we will make mistakes. Say you’re sorry.

2. Accept responsibility. Years and years ago, I’d make up excuses, blame others, anything to avoid taking personal responsibility. I learned a very valuable lesson, when you take personal responsibility, not only do you feel better, but the other party generally does too. In the case of my blunder today, I told her how sorry I was, that I really didn’t know what happened, but ultimately it was up to me to follow up and make sure that email went out. I could have easily blamed the software, the kids, Mercury being in Retrograde or any number of other things. Fact is…it was my bad.

3. Fix the issue. Come up with an immediate solution to solve the issue. If there is no immediate solution, at least present some ideas to work toward a solution together. But do what it takes to fix the issue…on your own time. I never charge a client for my mistakes. In my case, I checked to see that the email could still go out today and be effective so that’s what we ended up doing.

4. Put a system in place to ensure it doesn’t happen again. When working with employers, managers, clients, whatever, their biggest concern is that the mistake doesn’t happen again. Create a checks and balance to be sure you have all pieces, parts and steps completed. Even if it’s a simple spreadsheet with the steps listed out. Come up with something. In my case, I believe the error happened with my failing to follow up with the client to be sure the email was approved to be sent. So in the future, I will make sure I make a note, set a reminder, something to remind myself that I need to get an approval.

5. Don’t beat yourself up. This is a biggie. I used to really get upset when I made a mistake. I’d berate myself for hours. Now, I simply learn. Ok I screwed up. How can I do better next time? It’s not worth it to beat myself up over it. Pick yourself up, dust yourself off and move forward.

6. Learn from your mistakes. I always say they aren’t truly mistakes. They are lessons. What’s the lesson to learn from what happened? For me, it was having pointed out to me there was a hole in my system. Something I needed to revise. Mistakes are lessons…learn from them.

7. Slow down. Most often mistakes happen because we are in a rush to get something done. Slow down, take your time and do it right the first time. Trying to get things done in a hurry tends to bite us in the butt in the long run. Mistakes are costly and cost time, money and energy fixing. Slow down.

We’re human. We live in an environment now that changes every second. As a society we tend to think that unless we are juggling a million balls and a thousand plates, we’re slacking. It causes stress, health issues and ultimately can harm your business.