This episode discusses the power we can find in taking responsibility for our mistakes.

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Episode Transcript:

Opening

On today’s episode, the power in admitting when you’ve made a mistake.

You’re listening to Your Faith At Work with Dr. Ryan S. Howard, a podcast to inspire and equip you to partner with God in your daily work. Visit your YourFaithAtWork.org to learn more and download your free copy of 21 Days to a New Workplace You.

Episode

How do you normally handle it when you realize you’ve made a mistake? Does it depend on who the mistake was with or maybe what it was about? Maybe there was something that you weren’t successful in but it doesn’t really feel like it was your fault. How do you handle that? Do you have a consistent way to handle it?

Well, thinking about that, there’s several ways we can do it. We can deny it when it comes up or we can avoid it. Just kind of trying to skirt around the issue. Or we can make excuses. Come up with reasons why it happened. We say, “it wasn’t really my fault, but it did happen. So yeah, I’ll admit that it happened; I failed, but well there was really nothing I could do about it.”

Well, I want to point out that there’s another option, which is to take responsibility to take ownership for what happened.

There’s a quote from John C. Maxwell that I just love when it comes to this topic. He says, “it’s easier to go from failure to success then from excuses to success.” This is an incredible quote. It just really sums it up.

Why is that though? Well, when we stop making excuses, we can see clearly, we take responsibility. We can see where we really fell short and our mind is opened up to more creative thinking and just more open to seeing what actually happened. What could we actually have done different? Now, maybe there is a legitimate reason that’s outside of our control, but that’s not going to make us look more credible or better when we’re giving that reason. I mean, of course there’s a way we can point that out so that it doesn’t appear as though we’re blaming that. But we still need to really take responsibility.

Two Different Approaches

So think about this. If you have a boss or an employee, someone else you’re working with , a coworker, and you know they’re wrong. You know they made the mistake and you know the reasons and excuses they’re giving are just not legitimate, but they keep giving it and they keep harping it and they won’t let it go.

I mean, how do you see them? How childish does that look and how immature does that look? Now imagine if that same person just took responsibility for the mistake that they made and they just said, “you know what? I made a mistake. I shouldn’t have done that.” And then they moved forward.

How do you feel toward them? Does it soften your attitude toward them? Maybe make you even be kind of sympathetic or just appreciate that. No matter who it is, it immediately softens us toward them. So which way do you want to feel when you make a mistake or when something doesn’t go right? Or you don’t have success the way you wanted it.

Listen to Your Conviction

I want to say, listen to your conviction, you’ll know in your heart what you need to do. That’s what we want to do with our faith at work. We want to learn how to listen to the Holy Spirit. What’s He convicting us to say? What does He want us to do? What step does He want us to take with this? God can use it to move us forward, but we need to take responsibility. We need to take ownership. We need to be mature. We need to have emotional intelligence and see it as an opportunity to learn.

When you admit a mistake, it adds to your credibility. That’s what I’ve seen my whole career and inside and outside of my work. It boosts morale, it builds trust, and it sets the standard for how you want to operate, how you want others to interact with you.

Let God Work

We’re not at work to impress people. We’re here to please the Lord and do what He has for us. When we let our pride get in the way, we can’t see clearly to move forward. That needs to be crushed in us. And when that’s done and dealt with, then God can move. He can do what He wants to accomplish through us in our work. God can use everything for our good.

To be clear, I’m not saying that we should be careless and not be concerned with mistakes. We should do what we need to to avoid them, but when they do come up, when we do have them, we need to let God use the opportunity to our advantage. We need to humble ourselves and move forward as the example that we want to be.

So the next time a mistake happens, take responsibility. Humble yourself, take ownership and let the opportunity work for you.

Closing

Thanks for listening to Your Faith At Work with Dr. Ryan S. Howard, if you enjoyed this podcast, we’d love for you to subscribe, share, and leave us a review. Be sure to visit your YourFaithAtWork.org to download your free copy of 21 Days to a New Workplace You. And remember, God wants to partner with you in your work every day.