Okay, so that title might be a little bit misleading. I don’t like screwing up. Nobody does. More accurately, I know it’s inevitable that I’m going to screw up (i.e. I’m just a normal dude), and that there’s huge opportunity for growth when I do.

I decided to write this post today because – you guessed it – I screwed up at work today! Actually, not just today, but most of last week, too. It was all basically an exercise in what not to do when you do what I do. But the fact of the matter is, all people, and all leaders make mistakes. My hope is that writing about it will:

– help me piece together why I messed up;
– and to help you avoid making my mistakes; and,
– share my strategies for turning a mistake into an opportunity.

So what happened?

Nothing serious, actually. I was putting together a standard engineering document, and when I handed it in to be reviewed, there were a myriad of typos, clerical and engineering errors, and general ugliness. I had to re-hand it in something like three times. In short, it was pretty embarrassing. This was exacerbated by the fact that the guy reviewing my work was a mentor and someone I really look up to.

Bummer.

Why Did I Make So Many Mistakes?

Looking back, I think there were a few things at play that lead to my less-than-awesome work. For one, I wasn’t all that excited about the work I was doing. Like I said, it was pretty run-of-the-mill stuff. Besides that, I was under pretty tight timelines to get this thing done and handed in. Now, let me make it clear, those aren’t the reasons I made the mistakes. These factors lead to my not giving the task at hand my complete and undivided attention. That is what lead to my mistakes. Looking on the last few days, I can say with confidence that that was my issue.