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Permission or forgiveness?

By Gayle Oliver | Friday, September 14, 2007, 08:34 AM

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

It is important to consider how you manage your career mistakes. We all make them and often what separates those that survive lay-offs and economic hardships are the career-climbers that understand how to address their professional failures.

A big number of get-ahead-quick employees have whole-hearted embraced the concept that it is better to ask for forgiveness than wait for permission. The idea sounds great and can prove you are self-directed, independent, and a ‘go-getter’ who is anxious to make an impact in your job.

The downside is that you may find yourself doing irreparable damage to client relationships, your employer’s reputation, and even worse, adversely impacting the bottom-line. Making decisions without buy-in from key stakeholders who are directly impacted by your choices can also make you seem like an uncontrolled maverick that can’t follow directions, isn’t a team-player, or is an over-zealous risk-taker who is blindly ambitious.

That said, if you do bull-doze ahead and find you have made a professional mistake remember that asking for forgiveness is much more important that you might think. Often when people realize they have made a mistake they either try to cover it up (bad choice) or defend it (not good either).

How many leaders in business, politics, and religion in the past decade have had to retract their excuses or find themselves having to own up to bold face lies that will be etched in history for the foreseeable future?

It requires character to admit mistakes. It also requires humility to deliver apologies that elicit true ‘forgiveness’ from those you have injured, intentionally or otherwise.

Some key elements of an effective apology that may salvage your career when you are seeking forgiveness are: Be specific about the offense; Admit what harm has been caused; Clearly accept responsibility for the mistake; Include the words “I am sorry;” Explain why this offense will not re-occur; Act quickly in apologizing-time is not on your side.

Mistakes are inevitable so learning to leverage the power of the apology is one way to ensure you are building favorable references with each employer, every step of your career. The bonus is this skill helps in your personal life too!

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