What Happens When You Make a Mistake at Work?

Reflect, Respond, Recover

March 18, 2025

My friend Matt rushed into the restaurant last week for our lunch meeting. He was about 20 minutes late. Normally he is right on time, or even first to arrive. He was a little flustered and wholly apologetic. “I messed up,” he said. “I don’t know how it happened, but I put the wrong place into my phone, and it took me to another location. Sorry I’m so late. But there you have it.” It was a mistake. It happens. It really wasn’t a big deal. But it did get us talking about mistakes – and what happens when you make a mistake at work.

It was a mistake. It happens. It really wasn’t a big deal. But it did get us talking about mistakes – and what happens when you make a mistake at work.

Everyone makes mistakes. It doesn’t matter if you’re just starting out in your career, or if you’ve been in the working world for a while. There’s no escaping the occasional blunder. What becomes important is how quickly we acknowledge mistakes and what we do about it. You can’t avoid mistakes altogether (impossible!), but you can learn to recognize, respond and recover from them.

They come in all shapes and sizes, from the embarrassing typos in major presentations, forgotten deadlines, squandered opportunities, political missteps and even larger operational misses. Each of these situations offers valuable lessons. Learning how to navigate your own mistakes with grace and purpose can help you grow in your job and become a more effective contributor and leader.

There are also larger mistakes – ones that could be blatantly dishonest, harmful, illegal or unethical. We won’t go into those types of mistakes because sometimes those have an element of intent behind them, and they are outside of the scope of this post.

Let’s talk about the types of routine mistakes you might encounter, how to assess their severity, strategies for seeking help, and ways to bounce back stronger than before. By the end of this post, you should not only feel more prepared to handle mistakes but also see them as opportunities for growth.

#1 Recognize – the types of workplace mistakes

Sometimes you know right away when you make a mistake. There’s something that feels off – it just isn’t quite right. Other times, someone – a coworker, your boss, a senior leader – will point out your mistake. Here are some common types of mistakes you might encounter:

Communication Errors – poorly executing a reply to an email, overlooking a bad autocorrect, sending the email to the wrong recipient, too many cc’s, not enough cc’s, email too long, email is unclear.
Task Oversights – missed deadline, non-compliant process, forgetting an important step, deleting an important file.
Interpersonal Missteps – not including the right stakeholders, misjudging delegation, speaking out of turn in a meeting, not recognizing political connections, over-reliance on close business relationships.
Judgment Calls Gone Wrong – acting too quickly to decide based on incomplete or incorrect information, ignoring input from team members, forgoing approval steps, making poor assumptions.
Technical Errors – data input errors, data quality, version control, lack of back-ups, mismanagement of important files.

One rule of thumb to use at work is – if it feels unfamiliar: pay attention. If, upon a closer look it still does not look or feel right: ask yourself if a mistake has been made. You will likely know a mistake when you see it. Unless you are brand new to a company or a role, your experience will inform your gut instinct.

#2 Respond – assess the severity and seek help

Once you have confirmed that a mistake has been made, one of the first steps in responding is to acknowledge it. Noting that something may have gone awry will help you assess the severity and determine your next steps. Here are some guiding questions to help you diagnose the situation:

What’s the impact?
Examine the impact from all angles: timeline, financial, customer, personal safety, legal, company policy, etc. To what extent does the mistake impact your or your coworkers’ ability to do their jobs or carry on with the project?
Is it reversible?
Understand if the error can be corrected quickly, if there is a quick alternative course of action, or are the consequences more long-lasting?

Who’s affected?
Consider potential stakeholders who may be impacted and if it is a high, medium or low impact. This will help you form the foundation for your communication and action plan.
What’s the timing?
Think about when the mistake will impact the team or customers. Is it a one-time effect, or will it happen over time? Is it happening now, or in the future?

When you’ve completed your assessment, you’ll be ready to outline your next steps. A typo in an internal email is often very straightforward, but missing a crucial step in a documented process will likely require more effort. Your response will be proportional to the mistake’s impact. The next step is to figure out how – or if – it can be fixed. Here are some guidelines:

Acknowledge It Quickly
The sooner you own up to the mistake, the more trust you’ll retain. Be ready with a quick note or verbal confirmation describing the mistake and the steps you are taking to investigate and correct it.
Inform the Right People
Be sure to let your colleagues, manager and customer (if appropriate) know, if the mistake affects them. You will want to demonstrate your integrity and collaboration by keeping them updated.
Offer Solutions
Take initiative to generate possible fixes while at the same time being open to input from others. Sometimes you will want to combine this step with your acknowledgement of the mistake.
Seek Guidance
Some mistakes/fixes require additional input and guidance from a trusted colleague or mentor. Don’t be afraid to ask for help, but don’t abdicate responsibility. You are still accountable for fixing the mistake.

#3 Recover – life beyond your mistake

Even if a mistake can’t be entirely undone, you can still recover and rebuild trust. By following the steps to recognize and respond to your mistake, you’ll demonstrate that you own the mistake and accept responsibility. You don’t have to provide lengthy explanations and backstory but use the right opportunities to show that you take full responsibility and will be extra-diligent to ensure there isn’t a repeat.

Learning from mistakes will be a key part of recovering. Take time for yourself to reflect on what caused the mistake. Were you in a rush? Were you underprepared? Did you ignore potential warnings? Make sure you adjust your approach, so you don’t fall into a similar trap. If you noticed a flaw in a documented process, make sure you help update the process, so you prevent future mistakes.

Above all, be kind to yourself in the face of a mistake. Remember that mistakes happen, and everyone experiences them. Don’t be overly critical of yourself and focus on the important learning you derive from the experience. Continue to focus on your accomplishments and achievements and you will have the right mindset to deliver high-quality work for your team.

Are There Really Any Mistakes?

When Matt was late for our lunch, we got into a deeper discussion about whether true mistakes actually exist. It might be the case that mistakes aren’t just unfortunate events that happen – whether we cause them or not. What if instead they are essential parts of our professional lives, and they are there to help us learn? Are mistakes truly failures, or are they opportunities cleverly disguised as challenges?

Each mistake reveals something important: a gap in your knowledge, a need to communicate more clearly, a need to prepare more carefully or an opportunity to strengthen technical understanding. With each mistake, we advance our thinking and understanding of our business and ourselves. We are able to note a personal shortcoming, from “I need to carefully review the email before I hit ‘Send’,” to “I should have asked my manager before proceeding.” Some of my biggest professional breakthroughs came after minor blunders that forced me to rethink how I approached a situation. Without the mistake, I would have continued doing things the same way.

Call to Action: Recognizing and Embracing Mistakes

Think of mistakes as your own personal guide showing you the way to improvement. Mistakes may feel uncomfortable, embarrassing or dire in the moment, but they’re often a spark for course correction, leading to greater self-awareness and development.

The next time you realize you’ve made a mistake, stop and see it for what it is – a potentially fleeting moment of realization, followed by growth. Reflect on what led to the error (Recognize), take swift action to address it (Respond), and commit to learning from the experience (Recover).