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When To Swing
I remember seeing a sign on a business when I was a kid that said something of the following:
“An employee who never makes a mistake, isn’t doing anything. An employee that makes too many mistakes gets fired.”
While these two statements seem contradictory, they are based in reality. The first one is something all managers and executives know. Employees will make mistakes. The second one is what all employees fear. They don’t want to make a mistake that costs them their job. Mistakes are one of those tricky management issues that are tough on both the manager and those managed. Having no tolerance for mistakes can create a culture of everyone playing it safe and no new ideas. Allowing too many mistakes cost money that threatens the viability of the of the company.
For many young executives trying to work their way up the corporate ladder the margin for error is small indeed. One mistake, if not fatal can still have devastating impact on their career. We live in a society of perfectionism where we teach our children from a very young age that to be wrong is bad. Whether it is the answer on a test, math problem or where to put a comma, for many students, school is nothing more than a daily quest for the correct answer. We praise an A and tolerate a B or C but a D or F grade is unacceptable. For high achieving kids, perfection isn’t just expected, it’s demanded. Is it any…
